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Alaska Fisheries: A Guide to History Resources

Compiled by Robert W. King, September 2015

Dedication

This guide to the history resources of Alaska fisheries is dedicated to Wrangell historian Patricia “Pat” Ann Roppel (1938-2015). Pat moved to Alaska in 1959 and wrote thirteen books and hundreds of articles, many about the history of Alaska fisheries, including Alaska Salmon Hatcheries and Salmon from Kodiak. Twice honored as Alaska Historian of the Year, Pat Roppel is remembered for the joy she took in research and writing, her support of fellow historians and local museums, and her enthusiasm and good humor.

The Arctic Packing Company cannery, the first cannery in Bristol Bay. Moser, Jefferson. Alaska Salmon Investigations in 1900 and 1901. Washington: GPO, 1902.

Alaska Historic Canneries Initiative

The Alaska Historic Canneries Initiative was created in 2014 to document, preserve, and celebrate the history of Alaska’s commercial fish processing plants, and better understand the role the seafood industry played in the growth and development of our state. Alaska boasts some of largest and best-managed fisheries in the world. The state currently produces over 5 billion pounds of seafood products annually worth over $5 billion to its fishermen and even more on the wholesale and retail markets. Fisheries are closely regulated by state and federal authorities, and while fish populations naturally fluctuate, no commercially harvested species are being overfished.

Canneries are central to the development of Alaska, but an overlooked and neglected part of our historic landscape. Only two Alaska canneries are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, although few historic resources have impacted Alaska’s economy and history as greatly. For this reason, the Alaska Historical Society (AHS) undertook this new initiative to advocate for and educate the public about our historic canneries. The initiative informally came together in 2014 with a session dedicated to cannery history at the AHS annual conference in Haines, an online blog (Alaska’s Historic Canneries), and a presentation at Kodiak’s popular Comfish trade show. Similar efforts will continue at future AHS conferences and reach out to other gatherings of Alaska commercial fishermen to both celebrate this rich history and gather more stories from its participants.

A Guide for Users

Alaska Fisheries: A Guide to History Resources is a guide to the history of Alaska’s seafood industry and is intended primarily for those unfamiliar with Alaska historical sources. The Alaska Historical Society’s Historic Canneries Initiative prepared this to help those interested in researching the history of Alaska’s fisheries, fishing communities, canneries, or issues affecting its fisheries. It is hoped they can save time and frustration if they know how and where to start to look for historical materials. Click here to access the PDF version of the on-line bibliography that is accessible below.

General Outline and Organization

This guide is organized into twenty-five general and subject-specific categories relating to the literature on Alaska’s fisheries. Within these categories, the entries are listed alphabetically by the principal author or issuing agency. These categories are designed to help users to focus on specific areas of interest. There is some crossover, as topics or areas of interest pertain to multiple issues and are covered in several categories.

Fisheries in Alaska: A Historical Overview

Fisheries are closely linked to Alaska’s history. While some derided acquisition of the territory from Russia as “Seward’s icebox,” others knew that icebox was packed with fish. Fishermen began to exploited cod on the Shumagin islands and the “Slime Banks” on the Bering Sea. Industry pioneers built the first salmon canneries in Klawock and Sitka in 1878 and they quickly spread along the coast to Bristol Bay. As the industry grew, canned salmon provided jobs and the territory with over 80 percent of its tax revenues. Canneries attracted people, and their prime locations like Petersburg, Cordova, Kodiak, and Dillingham grew into communities. Statehood advocates seized on widespread opposition to outside-controlled fish traps to win the nation’s 49th star in 1959.

Salmon dominated Alaska’s early seafood production but catches of other species such as cod, halibut, herring, and more grew during the territorial era. The domestic king crab fishery was pioneered near Kodiak and in the Bering Sea in the years following World War II. Passage in 1976 of the federal Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, now known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act, dramatically expanded Alaska fisheries offshore. Extending the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone to 200 miles allowed domestic fishermen and processors to replace foreign fleets that harvested massive amounts of pollock and other groundfish. These harvests total over 2 million metric tons annually.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act also created regional councils to manage these fisheries. In Alaska, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council became a leader in fostering a science-based process to manage fisheries for long-term sustainability. Alaska also led in implementing license-limitation or catch-share programs to prevent overcapitalization and improve the economics of its fisheries, although not without controversy which continues to this day.

Scope and Content

There is a rich history in Alaska fisheries, but users are cautioned that this bibliography is not intended to be exhaustive and is, in fact, highly selective. This guide is designed to provide titles that are most likely to be held by major libraries in Alaska or larger academic research libraries outside of the state specializing in the history of Alaska or the Pacific Northwest. Included are articles (journals, magazines, and newspapers), administrative histories, bibliographies, ephemera (brochures, pamphlets, ), cultural resource reports, fiction, government publications (federal, territorial, state, and local), handbooks, memoirs and biographies, pictorial histories and photographic essays, professional conference papers, reference books, theses and dissertations, trade recipes, and yearbooks. There are, however, a large number of publications that are not listed but may be interest to some researchers.

Because of the importance of its fisheries, Alaska fisheries have generated a huge volume of published material into scientific research and management. Select summaries and reports of interest are listed, but this guide does not include all the scientific, technical, and statistical reports published annually. For those who want to dig deeper, links are provided to the different regulatory agencies involved.

Records for Alaska’s territorial and statehood periods in archival repositories contain a tremendous volume of annual reports, task force papers, planning documents, and investigations into specific issues. Some are listed here, but researchers should be aware that many more may be available in archives. The territorial governors’ annual reports to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior often contain relevant information. The territorial and state legislatures held many hearings on various aspects of Alaska’s fisheries.

This guide references other uses of Alaska’s fishery resources, such as subsistence and recreational fisheries, but not in exhaustive detail. Both of these subjects have merited bibliographies of their own. Select reports and historical perspectives regarding these uses are included, especially where their uses interact with the commercial sector.

Many of the publications listed in this guide are available in Anchorage at the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), Consortium Library, the University of Alaska Anchorage; in the Alaska Collection, Z. J. Loussac Library, Anchorage Public Library; and at the Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.

Publications can also be found in the Alaska Historical Collections section of the Alaska State Library, in Juneau; the William A. Egan Library, at the University of Alaska Southeast; and the Alaska Collection at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The National Marine Fisheries Service maintains extensive libraries on fishery matters at the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute, in Juneau, and at the Service’s office in Kodiak.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) maintains libraries in many regional offices. Some have unique holdings. For example, the ADFG office in Juneau has a two-album collection of newspaper clippings from 1959 to 1969 on fisheries and related matters. ADFG biologist Charles Meacham Sr. compiled the collection and donated it to the department after his retirement. Many clippings are from the Anchorage Daily Times and Anchorage Daily News, but other publications are included, such as the Cheechako News, Tundra Times, and the Naknek Alaska Fisherman. While the contents may be accessible elsewhere, the Meacham collection is a unique compilation of fishing-related news articles written just as the new state took control of its fisheries.

Outside Alaska, the University of Washington’s Suzzallo and Allen Libraries and Special Collections, and the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences maintain extensive collections of fishery records and archival material. The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Maritime Research Center is also a tremendous source of material.

For additional assistance with reference questions on specific topics, students, teachers, and other users should contact a local librarian, archivist, or museum curator who is familiar with local and regional history sources. Users can also rely on web-based library catalogs and other online finding aids and research tools.

For in‐depth research beyond secondary sources (books, articles, and so forth), users are encouraged to directly contact the libraries, archives, and museums listed in this guide for reference service and other assistance in using primary sources. Secondary source material may be accessible via interlibrary loan at public, college, and university libraries. Original primary sources are not available through interlibrary loan programs as they are unique materials and cannot be replaced. Researchers are encouraged to contact the archival repository holding the specific materials of interest in advance of a possible visit to discuss the subject of their research and to receive reference assistance. Some primary source materials may be available digitized or microfilm formats. Major academic research libraries and archives in Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau hold microfilm copies of selected Alaska materials, with some covering fisheries topics, from the National Archives, Library of Congress, and from other major repositories.

Additional Sources:

Pacific Fisherman for October 1922. Ads were featured on the cover through the 1930s.

Trade Publications

An invaluable source for fishery researchers is the trade magazine Pacific Fisherman, which was published monthly from 1903 to 1966. Pacific Fisherman also published a yearbook or “Annual Number” that contained statistical summaries and key stories from previous year. Publisher Miller Freeman was a strong advocate of the fishing industry, and Pacific Fisherman covered all aspects: its history and development, harvest statistics, changes in technology and regulation, politics and controversies, and the industry’s personalities. The advertisements alone make it an entertaining read. Some issues focused on different aspects of the industry. The September 1925 edition, for example, featured commercial fishing in Southeast Alaska. Several libraries have complete or partial collections of Pacific Fisherman, and the University of Washington has posted editions from 1903-1911 online: http://content.lib.washington.edu/pacfishweb/index.html.

In 1966, Pacific Fisherman folded into Maine-based National Fisherman, which remains in publication and is also a valuable source of industry news: http://www.nationalfisherman.com/. National Fisherman maintained the Pacific Fisherman’s yearbook, rebranded as the Pacific Packers Report, through at least 1981. Archival copies are a great source of annual statistical information and articles on industry trends.

The United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA), a Juneau-based umbrella group of fishermen’s organizations, published a monthly newspaper, the Alaska Fisherman, beginning in the 1970s. Later in the decade, the Seattle-based Alaska Fisherman’s Journal (AFJ) was founded. In the early 1980s, the UFA paper folded into the AFJ, which was acquired by National Fisherman in 2005.

Many Alaska newspapers covered fisheries. The archives of the Anchorage Times and Anchorage Daily News are great sources of information as are the business publications Alaska Journal of Commerce,www.alaskajournal.com, and Alaska Business Monthly,www.akbizmag.com.

Local newspapers often offered unique perspectives. For example, the Beacon of Dillingham (1950-1955) was closely aligned with the local fishermen’s union, and is a great source on the post-war unionization movement. Many other local papers played a similar role. A good place to start is the Guide to Alaska Newspapers on Microfilm, 1866-1998: http://library.alaska.gov/hist/hist_docs/newspapers/by_place.pdf.

Alaska magazine, known as TheAlaska Sportsman Magazine from 1935 to 1969, also contains considerable material on the fishing industry. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game published a monthly magazine, Alaska Fish Tales and Game Trails (later Alaska Fish and Game,and then Alaska’s Wildlife). This was discontinued in the early 1990s but is good source of material on the seafood industry. Still in publication is the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development publication Alaska Economic Trends, http://labor.state.ak.us/trends/, which annually publishes an issue covering the state’s commercial fishing industry or certain aspects of it, such as hatcheries.

The University of Alaska’s Sea Grant program has an extensive library of fishery-related publications including proceedings of conferences on king crab, herring, flatfish, rockfish, and pollock, and on specific issues such as limited entry: http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/index.html. The American Fisheries Society, www.fisheries.org, maintains an extensive library of books and reports on different aspects of the nation’s fisheries and the fishing industry, many focusing on Alaska.

Archival Material

A tremendous amount of archival material about Alaska fisheries is available in state and outside. The Alaska State Library has an extensive collection of archival material, including a collection of material from the Alaska Packers Association. The APA collection overs the years 1891 through 1970 and includes many photographs of Alaska canneries. A convenient guide to the APA collection is available.

The University of Washington Libraries (Seattle, WA) and Western Washington University’s Center for Pacific Northwest Studies (Bellingham, WA) hold archives of fishing companies, union groups, and more. The National Archives and Record Administration has extensive collection of archival material from Alaska’s territorial days in Record Group 22 (Records of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and Record Group 370 (Records of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), at the National Archives at Seattle and at its two Washington, DC facilities (i.e., National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD, and the National Archives, Washington, DC). The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Maritime Research Center is also a tremendous source of archival material from the canned salmon industry’s earliest days.

Historic maps and charts can often provide information about the location of canneries, fishing communities, and the fishing grounds. NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey maintains an online collection of over 35,000 of the nation’s historic maps and charts, including hundreds for Alaska dating back at least to the 18th century. The collection is searchable and images are available for download at https://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/.

Note on Scientific Literature

This bibliography does not and cannot list all of the scientific and statistical reports that have been generated about fisheries. A few selected studies are listed here for their historical significance, and some statistical summaries for their convenience. Other annual reports, statistical summaries, and various research papers may well be of interest to researchers. Resource agencies such as the ADFG, IPHC, NMFS, and NPFMC maintain extensive libraries and many of their documents are available online:

The amount of available data has seemingly grown exponentially in recent decades as computer technology allowed us to generate, process, and share this information, and conflicting pressures on resources demanded scientific answers to highly technical questions. For example, the Pebble Mine, a massive copper and gold mine proposed in the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed, generated an Ecological Baseline Document that is estimated at 20,000 pages. A printed copy is available at ARLIS, but the page count is less relevant in the Internet age. Its 53 chapters, 7 appendices, and technical summaries are available for downloading at a total of over 2 gigabytes of data. The fish section alone is 209 megabytes and that doesn’t include chapters on subsistence and recreational uses. The Environmental Protection Agency posted its own assessment of potential impacts from such a large mine, a comparatively terse download of 47 MB, or about 1,400 pages.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Alaska Historical Society for its support of the Alaska Historic Canneries Initiative and this annotated bibliography. Special thanks are due to Anjuli Grantham, Jim Mackovjak, and Bruce Parham for their editorial review of this historical guide and contributions to this bibliography, and to Karen Brewster for realizing this as an online publication.

1 – General Alaska Histories

Dall, William H. Alaska and its Resources. Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard, 1870, 670 pp., plates, maps, appendices. An early assessment of Alaska resources, including a chapter on fisheries and other references, by the director of the scientific corps of the 1866 Western Union telegraph expedition. Includes a list of the fishes of Alaska.

Davidson, George. The Alaska Boundary. San Francisco, CA: Alaska Packers Association, 1903, 235 pp., maps. A detailed history of issues and politics involved in establishing the boundary between Southeast Alaska and British Columbia by a pioneer surveyor who was involved in charting Alaska beginning in 1867. Commissioned by the APA, which had an interest in fisheries, cannery properties, and navigation in the region.

Gruening, Ernest. The State of Alaska. New York: Random House, 1954, 606 pp., maps. The former governor and future senator famously noted that salmon and Alaska were as closely intertwined as cotton and the South.

Haycox, Stephen. A Warm Past: Travels in Alaska History. Anchorage: Press North, 1988, xiii, 157 pp., illustrations, map. A compilation of fifty essays that originally appeared in the AnchorageTimes and mostly cover less-well-known individuals and aspects of Alaska’s history.

Naske, Claus‐M., and Herman E. Slotnick. Alaska: A History, Third Edition, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011, xi, 504 pp., photographs, maps, illustrations, index. A chronological survey of the state’s history and politics through the early 2000s. Previous editions were published in 1979 and 1987.

Norris, Frank and Bruce Merrell, project coordinators. The Alaska 67: A Guide to Alaska’s Best History Books. Anchorage: Hardscratch Press for the Alaska Historical Society, 2006, 96 pp., maps, illustrations. With a numerical nod to the 1867 purchase, a compilation of the best books on Alaska history nominated and selected by Alaska historians.

Orth, Donald J. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, Geological Survey Professional Paper 567. Washington: GPO, 1967, 1084 pp, maps. A classic reference work about place names throughout Alaska including those of canneries, fishing communities, geographic locations important in identifying fishing districts and boundaries, and much, much more.

Ritter, Harry. Alaska’s History: The People, Land, and Events of the North Country. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 1993, 143 pp., photographs, illustrations, map, index. A popular history of Alaska, with concise summaries of famous persons, events, and topics. Marketed as a pocket guide for tourists and other visitors.

Rogers, George W. The Future of Alaska: Economic Consequences of Statehood. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962, 311 pp. photographs. Rogers came to Alaska during WWII to secure canned salmon for the military and was noticed by the territory’s political leaders. He helped write the Alaska’s constitutional provisions on natural resources and took a broad interest the economics of the new state.

2 – General Histories On Commercial Fishing

Andrews, Clarence L. “The Salmon of Alaska.” Washington Historical Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 (October 1918). Seattle, WA: University of Washington, pp. 243‐254. Andrews wrote several articles about Alaska history published in the quarterly between 1915 and 1935 and are available online.

Arnold, David F. The Fisherman’s Frontier: People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2008, 296 pp., illustrations. Examination of the economic, social, cultural, and political context in which salmon have been harvested and managed in Southeast Alaska, from aboriginal subsistence fisheries to an industrial commodity.

Augerot, Xanthippe, and Dana Nadel Foley, photographer. Atlas of Pacific Salmon: The First Map-Based Status Assessment of Salmon in the North Pacific. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005, xi, 150 pp., photographs, maps, bibliography, index. Prepared by the Wild Salmon Center and Ecotrust, an examination of the salmon, their ecosystems, exploitation, and environmental risks. Includes recommendations on ecosystem management.

Blackford, Mansel G. Making Seafood Sustainable: American Experiences in Global Perspective. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, 275 pp., photographs, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. A business analysis of fishery sustainability with a focus on Alaska salmon, crab, and pollock. Blackford notes the importance of ending the “race for fish” as well as the community impacts caused by limiting effort that results in fewer jobs.

Browning, Robert J. Fisheries of the North Pacific: History, Species, Gear & Processes. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing, 1974 (revised 1980), vii, 423 pp., photographs, illustrations, notes, appendices, index. A general guide to the history of Alaska fisheries, the biology of the commercial species, the vessels and gear used, the fishing methods, the handling of the catch at sea and onshore, and the processing of fish products.

Clover, Charles. End of the Line, How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat. New York: The New Press, 2006, 335 pp, glossary, bibliography, index, consumer guide to choosing fish. Study of fishing practices worldwide, with many references to Alaska pollock, salmon, crab, and other fisheries.

Freeburn, Laurence, editor. Silver Years of the Alaska Canned Salmon Industry: An Album of Historical Photos. Alaska Geographic Vol.3, No. 4 (1976, reprinted in 1991). Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 168 pp., illustrations, table, bibliography. Extensive use of historical photographs with accompanying text, to record the history of the Alaska salmon canning industry from 1879 to 1973. Also includes historic articles, advertisements, etc., from Pacific Fisherman.

Gay, Joel, and Daryl Binney. Commercial Fishing in Alaska. Alaska Geographic 24, No. 3 (1997). Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 112 pp., photographs. Overview of Alaska’s commercial fishing industry from the 1960s and early 1970s with coverage on salmon, herring, groundfish, halibut, and crab. Salted with first person observations about the fishing business, the dangers and risks of the job, and the challenge of keeping fisheries viable for a sustained yield.

Hilborn, Ray, and Ulrike Hilborn. Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford, UK: University Press, 2012, xviii, 150 pp., bibliography, index. With his wife as coauthor, University of Washington marine biologist and fishery scientist Ray Hilborn tackles the sustainability issue with rare and welcome clarity, and many references to Alaska fisheries. Part of Oxford’s “What everyone needs to know” series, Overfishing is a clearly written, accessible, and balanced handling of a complicated issue.

King, Bob (Robert W.) “A Century of Salmon: A Brief History of the Bristol Bay Salmon Fishery, 1883-2002.” An Analysis of Options to Restructure the Bristol Bay Salmon Fishery. Dillingham, AK: Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, 2003, pp. 4-14, notes. An overview of the 120-year history of the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery intended to provide context to a report on options for future restructuring of the fishery. The full study is available online at www.bbsalmon.com.

King, Robert W. Sustaining Alaska’s Fisheries: Fifty Years of Statehood. Juneau: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 2009, vii, 73 pp., photographs, appendices. Fishery management strategies, efforts, and personnel since the state assumed the responsibility for fisheries management from the federal government in 1960.

Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. New York: Walker Publishing Co., 1996, 294 pp., photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index, recipes. Only passing references to Alaska cod, but a classic read on the geopolitics of fish.

Kurlansky, Mark, and Frank Stockton, illustrator. World without Fish. New York: Workman Publications, 2011, 184 pp., illustrations, photographs, index. Cautionary tale about the impacts of overfishing, pollution, and climate change on world fish stocks, and a call to action.

McEvoy, Arthur. The Fisherman’s Problem: Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries 1850-1980. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1986, xvii, 257 pp., photographs, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Tracing California fisheries from aboriginal to industrial uses, a discussion of fisheries’ version of the “Tragedy of the Commons”: in an open-access fishery there is no market incentive to prevent overfishing.

Mink, Nicolaas. Salmon: A Global History. London: Reaktion Books, 2013, 128 pp., illustrations. A culinary journey, including recipes, from Alaska to the rivers of Scotland, tracing the history of salmon as it was transformed from what the author calls “nature’s earliest convenience food” to a mass-produced canned product.

Montgomery, David. King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003, xiv, 290 pp., photographs, illustrations, bibliography. The decline of salmon over the past 1,000 years in the British Isles, New England, and the Pacific Northwest, with recommendations for reversing the decline.

Netboy, Anthony. The Salmon, Their Fight for Survival. Boston, MA: Houton Mifflin Co., 1973, xxii, 535 pp., photographs, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. An overview of salmon and salmon fisheries worldwide, including Alaska. Netboy also wrote several related books including Salmon, The World’s Most Harassed Fish (London, UK: Andre Duetsch, 1980, 293 pp.), as well as other works on Atlantic salmon, the impact of dams on the Columbia River, and an autobiography.

Shiels, Archie W. Alaska: Its Early History and What It Means to Us. Seattle, WA: Pacific American Fisheries, 1925, 7 pp. Shiels later served as president of PAF from 1932 to 46, and opines on Alaska’s history and its importance to the fishing industry in an address delivered at a meeting of St. Alban’s Conclave in Seattle on November 28, 1925.

Woodby, Doug, et al. Commercial Fisheries of Alaska. Juneau: Alaska Department of Fish and Game Special Publication 05-09, 2005, 66 pp. A comprehensive but abbreviated and now dated summary of status of commercial fisheries statewide, everything from salmon, pollock, halibut and crab to flatfish, rockfish, sea cucumbers, and more.

3 – Alaska Territorial Fisheries (1884-1959)

Bean, Tarleton. The Cod Fishery of Alaska. Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, Section V, The History and Methods of the Fisheries, Vol. I, Washington: GPO, 1887, 26 pp. American ichthyologist Tarleton Bean traveled to Alaska in 1880 and writes of the natural history and distribution of the Pacific cod, the history of the cod fishery, and a description of the fishery as it was then conducted.

Bean, Tarleton H. Life History of the Salmon of Alaska. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1892. Washington: GPO, 1894, pp. 23-51, plates. Biology, distribution, and range in Alaska of salmon, trout, and other species, such as whitefish and herring, with many references to Karluk. Includes a substantial bibliography of publications on salmon from 1811-1892.

Branson, John B., and Tim Troll. Our Story: Readings from Southwest Alaska. Anchorage: Alaska Natural History Association, 1998, second edition 2006, 205 pp., photographs, maps, glossary, index. An anthology of material regarding the history and culture of the Bristol Bay region with a section on commercial fishing.

Camarot, Henry J., and Marjorie Wentworth. A Report and Recommendations on the Study of the Problems in the Fishing Industry. Juneau: Alaska Legislative Council, 1958, 63 pp, tables, graphs, appendices. As statehood approached, the Territorial Legislature requested a review of the status of Alaska fisheries, which were in steady decline. Includes a summary of laws related to the industry, a discussion of fish traps, and recommendations for turning the industry around, including creating a school of fisheries.

Cobb, John N. Pacific Cod Fisheries. Appendix VII to the Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1926, Bureau of Fisheries Document 1014.Washington: GPO, 1927, pp. 395-499, photographs, map, bibliography. Compilation of the natural history and commercial exploitation of cod in the Pacific and primarily Alaska. A first edition appeared as Appendix IV to the Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1915.

Collins, J.W. Report on the Fisheries of the Pacific Coast of the United States. Report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1892. Washington: GPO, 1892, 18 pp., photographs. Capt. Collins was head of the U.S. Fish Commission’s Division of Fisheries. His history of the Alaska cod fishery includes descriptions of the fishing effort and San Francisco curing plants, as well as catch statistics and several photographs.

Grantham, Anjuli. Fishing at Karluk: Nature, Technology, and the Creation of the Karluk Reservation in Territorial Alaska. Master’s thesis, University of South Carolina, 2011. A description of how access to and the use of beach seines and other fishing gear impacted the creation of one of Alaska’s only Native reservations.

Hubbs, Carl L. Report to the Secretary of the Interior on Malfeasance and Corruption in the Bureau of Fisheries [in Alaska] (1939-1940). Investigation commissioned by Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes prior to the transfer of control of U.S. fisheries from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Interior. This 1,400-page report contains numerous interviews with persons associated with Alaska fisheries. Archived in RG 48, NARA, College Park, MD. UAF has a digital copy.

Hunt, William R. History of Marine Hatcheries of Alaska. Fairbanks: Alaska Sea grant Program, 1976, 45 pp., bibliography, appendices. Roppel, 1982, is more comprehensive on this subject but Hunt’s initial work is noted.

Jordan, David Starr, and Barton Warren Evermann. Preliminary Report of the Alaska Salmon Commission. Message from the President of the United States Transmitting a Communication from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 58th Congress, House of Representatives Document No. 477. Washington: GPO, 1904, 37 pp., tables. The commission’s was the first investigation of Alaska salmon by trained fishery biologists and includes descriptions of the different regions, fisheries, methods, regulations, with several recommendation on needed steps to conserve the fisheries including hatcheries.

Kallenberg, Robert C. A Study of the Red Salmon of Bristol Bay with Particular Reference to Teaching its Conservation. Master’s thesis, Cornell University, 1952, 41 pp. A review of the establishment of canneries in the Bristol Bay region, development of regulations following the White Act (1924), and impacts of the fishery on local communities.

King, Bob (Robert W.). “The Salmon Industry at War.” Alaska at War, 1941-45: The Forgotten War Remembered. Anchorage: Alaska at War Committee, Fern Channondet, editor, 1995, pp. 211-218. Presented at the Alaska at War Symposium in November 1993, this paper examines the impact of WWII on then the territory’s major industry and the industry’s contributions to the war effort.

King, Robert W. “Rowboats and the Bird Sanctuary: The Salmon Troll Fishery at Forrester Island, 1912-1914.” Proceedings of the Alaska Historical Society conference in Kodiak, 2005. Anchorage, Alaska Historical Society, pp. 209-217, photographs, illustrations, notes. History of a short-lived king salmon fishery for the mild-cured (salted) market in Germany. The fishery ended with the beginning of World War I, but its legacy stretched to the end of the century.

King, Robert W. “Mortality and Myth on Deadman Sands: Fatalities in the Bristol Bay Sailboat Fishery.” Proceedings of the Alaska Historical Society Conference in Homer, 2007. Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society, 2009, pp. 197-205, photographs, graphs. On the deaths of salmon fishermen during Bristol Bay’s sailboat era and how they have been memorialized.

Knapp, Lawrence. History of Regulations and Pack on Yukon, Personal Use and Rundown on Salmon Runs. Washington: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1958, 22 pp., tables. History of commercial and subsistence uses of salmon, mostly kings, on the Yukon River from 1917 to 1958. Knapp issued an updated report in 1959. A subsequent state report on the AYK fishery (See Pennoyer, 1965) reported much different catch statistics.

MacDonald, Rose M.E. An Analytical Subject Bibliography of the Publications of the Bureau of Fisheries, 1871-1920. Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 899. Washington: Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Commerce, 1921, 306 pp., index of authors. Compiled by the Bureau’s librarian, an extensive, cross-referenced bibliography of publications by Bureau of Fisheries through 1920. Includes many scientific reports but also histories of fisheries, discussion of fishing techniques, and more. National in scope, digitized versions are easily searchable.

Mackovjak, James. Alaska Salmon Traps. Gustavus, AK: Cross Sound Innovations, 2013, ix, 244 pp., photographs, illustrations, glossary, endnotes. A history of Alaska’s salmon trap era, including descriptions of the design, construction, and operation of salmon traps. Industrial salmon traps came into use in Alaska beginning in the late 1800s. They were highly efficient but sparked controversy that fueled the statehood movement.

McDonald, Marshall. “Report on the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska.” Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1892. Washington: GPO, 1894, pp. 1-20. Early description of the status of fisheries and a discussion of a fish trap in Wood River near present day Dillingham. Includes Dr. Livingston Sloan’s presentation to the American Fisheries Society in which he called for designation of Afognak Island as a national “Salmon Park.”

Morris, William Governeur. “Report on the Customs District, Public Service, and Resources of Alaska.” Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Resources of Alaska, Vol. IV. Washington: GPO, 1898, pp. 1-163, illustrations, map. Reprint of a Treasury Agent’s report on his investigation of Alaska in 1877, before the first cannery was built in Alaska, in which he noted, “The yield of salmon is unprecedented and beyond belief.” His observations on Alaska fisheries are on pages 113-120.

Moser, Jefferson F. The Salmon and Salmon Fisheries in Alaska. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1898, Washington: GPO, 1899, pp. 1-178, photographs, illustrations, charts. In his first investigation of the Alaska salmon fisheries, Moser visited Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, Kodiak and Unalaska but he reports on fisheries throughout the territory, including Bristol Bay.

Moser, Jefferson F. Salmon Investigations of the Steamer Albatross in the Summer of 1900. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1901. Washington: GPO, 1902, pp. 173-398, photographs, maps, illustrations. In his second investigation, Moser travelled to Bristol Bay, Kodiak, Cook Inlet, and Southeast Alaska.

Parker, Robert, and Walter Kirkness. King Salmon and the Ocean Troll Fishery of Southeastern Alaska. Juneau: Alaska Department of Fisheries, Research Report #1, 1956, 64 pp., maps, tables, bibliography. The first research report of the territorial department examined the history of the Southeast Alaska troll fishery. Tagging and other data linking it with Columbia River stocks raised concern about dams on that river.

Petroff, Ivan. Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska. Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Resources of Alaska, Vol. IV. Washington: GPO, 1898, pp. 165-450. A reprint from his Petroff’s 1880 census report, in which he noted: “The salmon family, the great feeder of all the Alaskan people, frequent in astonishing numbers the Nushegak (sic) and other streams emptying into Bristol Bay.”

Rathbun, Richard. Explorations of the Fishing Grounds of Alaska, Washington Territory, and Oregon, During 1888, by the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross, Lieut. Comdr. Z. L. Tanner, U.S. Navy, Commanding. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. VIII, 1888. Washington: GPO, 1890, 74 pp., plus 5 charts. Report by a prominent American scientist associated with the Smithsonian Institution, who traveled to Alaska on the steamer Albatross.

Shiels, Archie. Why Fish Traps Should Not Be Abolished in Alaska. Bellingham, WA: Pacific American Fisheries, 1939, 32 pp., tables. The state of Washington banned fish traps in 1935 and aware of similar criticism of traps in Alaska, the president of PAF, a major trap operator, raised economic and other arguments for keeping them.

Tanner, Zera Luther. The Fishing Grounds of Bristol Bay, Alaska: A Preliminary Report upon the Investigations of the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross during the Summer of 1890.Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission for 1889. Washington: GPO, 1891, pp. 279 -288, charts. A preliminary survey of the Bristol Bay region, its coastline and cod banks. Includes an early chart of the region that shows cannery locations.

Tanner, Zera Luther. Report upon the Investigations of the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross from July 1, 1889, to June 30, 1891. Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1889 to 1891. Washington: GPO, 1893, pp. 207-342. Detailed report of two Albatross voyages: the 1889 voyage that transported several U.S. senators to Southeast Alaska, and a voyage to the Bering Sea in 1890. Includes observations regarding canneries in Bristol Bay’s Nushagak district and a detailed record of hydrographic soundings.

Taylor, Joseph E., III. “’Well-Thinking Men and Women”: The Battle for the White Act and the Meaning of Conservation in the 1920s.” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 3 (2002), pp. 357-387. Federal attempts to regulate the Alaska salmon industry in the early 1920s from fishery reservations and then the White Act. Uses the conflict between Alaska Rep. Dan Sutherland and Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover to examine shifting influences on conservation in the era.

Wilcox, William A. The Fisheries of the Pacific Coast. Report of the United States Fishery Commission for 1893. Washington: GPO, 1893, pp. 139-304 pp., plates. Includes just eight pages about Alaska (pp. 297-304) but fills in gaps in early Treasury Department records on canneries operations (see Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries). Also includes observations about salmon salteries, herring oil, guano, and Atka mackerel.

4 – Alaska Statehood Fisheries (post-1959)

Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Progress Report 1960-62. Juneau:State of Alaska, 1963, vi, 77 pp., photographs, illustrations, tables. Continuation of the department’s territorial Annual Report, adopting the title of the last USFWS annual and covering three years. Includes general commercial catch statistics, an update on ongoing research, and information about recreational fisheries and game activities.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Post-Earthquake Fisheries Evaluation: An Interim Report on the March, 1964 Earthquake Effects on Alaska’s Fishery Resources. Juneau: State of Alaska, 1965, 72 pp., photographs, maps, charts, bibliography. Report on damage to habitat, fish resources, and the economy in Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet, and Kodiak stemming from the massive 1964 Good Friday Earthquake.

Brakel, Judith. A Maritime Sense of Place: Southeast Alaska Fishermen and Mainstream Nature Ideologies. Master’s thesis for University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1999, 146 pp., appendices, bibliography. Brakel interviewed 55 fishermen and others regarding their involvement in the fisheries and their relationship to place and nature.

Brown, Dennis. Salmon Wars: The Battle for the West Coast Salmon Fishery. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2005, 408 pp. A Canadian perspective of the history of the Pacific Salmon Treaty and coastwise salmon resource, and controversies between the U.S. and Canada including the Alaska ferry blockade in 1998.

Clemens, Janet, and Frank Norris. Building in an Ashen Land: Historic Resource Study of Katmai National Park and Preserve. Anchorage: National Park Service, 1999 (revised in 2008), 204 pp., photographs, maps, bibliography, index, notes. Includes chapters on salmon and clam canneries, and salmon research undertaken within the park’s boundaries.

Golia, Andrew. Bristol Bay: The Herring Fishery. Dillingham, AK: Bristol Bay Native Association, 1979, 24 pp., photographs, maps, illustrations. A report on the rapid development in the Togiak herring fishery with a focus on encouraging local participation. The report was updated the following year in Bristol Bay: The Herring Fishery 1980. Dillingham: Bristol Bay Native Association, 1980, 24 pp., photographs, maps, illustrations. Includes a review of the 1979 fishery, development of the Bristol Bay Herring Marketing Co-op, and technical information on herring skiffs and gillnets.

Mackovjak, James. Navigating Troubled Waters: A History of Commercial Fishing in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Anchorage: National Park Service, 2010, xii, 258 pp., photographs, maps, graphs, notes, appendices. A history of salmon, halibut, and crab fishing within Glacier Bay and the controversial closure of commercial fisheries within waters of the national park.

Merrell, Theodore, chairman. Alaska Finfish Farming Task Force Report to the Alaska Legislature. Juneau: State of Alaska, 1990, 39 pp., appendices, bibliography. As the salmon farming industry grew around the world, the legislature formed the task force to examine issues related to whether farming of salmon and other finfish should be allowed in Alaska. Among its conclusions was that the cost of regulating the industry would be high. The legislature later banned finfish farming in Alaska.

Orth, Franklin L., Charles Smelcer, Howard M. Feder and John Williams. The Alaska Clam Fishery: A Survey and Analysis of Economic Potential. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science, Sea Grant Report 75-5, 1975, 148 pp., illustrations, maps, charts, tables, notes, references, appendices. Examination of the history and future prospects for the Alaska clam fishery. Includes discussion of the processing and marketing of clams and regulation of the fishery.

Rosenberg, Donald H. editor. Proceedings of the Conference on Salmon Aquaculture and the Alaskan Fishing Community. Anchorage: Alaska Sea Grant Program, 1976, 302 pp., graphs, tables, maps. The Cordova conference focused on the recently passed legislation that established hatcheries in Alaska, and their prospects and challenges. Contributors include George Rogers, Clint Atkinson, Frank Orth, Armin Koernig, Wallace Noerenberg, and others. A second aquaculture conference was held in Wrangell in 1977.

Shepard, M. P., and A. W. Argue. The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty: Sharing Conservation Burdens and Benefits. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2006, 288 pp. A Canadian perspective of the history of the contentious negotiations leading to the coastwise Pacific Salmon Treaty and an assessment of the treaty’s performance.

Authors and titles vary (see below). Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries. Washington: GPO, 1892 to 1958. An annual report compiled by the federal government that provides basic information on Alaska fishery harvests, canneries, fishing effort, workforce and more. The first legislation to manage Alaska fish passed Congress in 1889 and required an annual investigation. The program got off to a bad start. The first investigator didn’t arrive in Alaska until September of 1892, after the season was largely over. The second investigator got an earlier start and as far as Afognak, but then died. His son finished the report based on his father’s notes. Subsequent investigators including Howard M. Kutchin, a former journalist who wrote the reports from 1897 to 1906, standardized the format and made the report into one of the best sources of basic information on the territorial development of Alaska fisheries.

The report evolved and the title changed as responsibility for Alaska fisheries was passed from the Treasury Department, which controlled the Revenue Cutter Service –predecessor to the Coast Guard – to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Fisheries in 1903 and to the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service in 1939, but it was named Alaska Fisheries and Fur-Seal Industries from 1920 to 1956. The focus of the report expanded from salmon to include other fisheries: halibut, herring, crab, and more. A section titled “Losses and Disasters” chronicles cannery fires, vessel sinkings, and fatalities in the industry. The reference to fur industries reflected a section on the Pribilof Island fur seal harvest. The annual occasionally included special reports regarding subjects such as the 1919 fishery failure in Bristol Bay and controversy over Yukon River subsistence fisheries in 1921. As Alaska statehood neared, the format changed yet again in 1957, and the report was renamed Progress Report for Alaska Fisheries Research and Management. Publication ceased after statehood. A summary of the report, its various titles and authors follows.

Department of the TreasurySalmon Fisheries of Alaska, 1892, Report of Special Agent (Max) Pracht*Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, 1893, Report of Special Agent (J.K.) Luttrell*Report of Special Agent (Joseph) Murray on the Salmon Fisheries in Alaska, 1894Report of Joseph Murray, Special Treasury Agent, for the Year 1895*Report on the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, 1896, George TingleReport on the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, 1897 to 1902, Howard M. Kutchin

Department of Commerce and Labor**, Bureau of FisheriesReport on the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, 1903 to 1905, Howard M. KutchinThe Commercial Fisheries of Alaska in 1905, John N. CobbThe Fisheries of Alaska in 1906, John N. Cobb and Howard M. KutchinThe Fisheries of Alaska in 1907 to 1910, Millard C. Marsh and John N. CobbAlaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1911, Barton Warren EvermannFisheries and Fur Industries of Alaska in 1912, Barton Warren EvermannAlaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1913, Barton Warren EvermannAlaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1914 to 1917, Ward T. Bower and Henry D. AllerAlaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1918 and 1919, Ward T. BowerAlaska Fisheries and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920 to 1938, Ward T. Bower

*In The Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Resources of Alaska, Vol. 2, Washington: GPO, 1898, pp. 385-459.
**Renamed the Department of Commerce in 1912.
***Fur-Seal was not hyphenated in the title of issues from 1940-42, and 1944.

Blackford, Mansel G. Pioneering a Modern Small Business: Wakefield Seafoods and the Alaskan Frontier. Industrial Development and the Social Fabric, Vol. 6. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1979, xx, 168 pp, photographs, maps, tables, illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, index. History of Wakefield Seafoods and the post-WWII development of Alaska’s king crab fishery.

Branson, John B. Bristol Bay, Alaska, From the Hinterlands to Tidewater: A Grassroots Pictorial, 1885-1965. Anchorage: National Park Service, 1998, 119 pp. Limited edition album of annotated photographs and newspaper clippings, compiled by the resident ranger-historian for Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.

Carey, Michael. “Save the Salmon: The Carlisle Cannery on the Yukon, 1918-1921.” Alaska Journal, Vol. 15. Anchorage: Alaska Geographical Society, 1985, pp. 33-39. Carlisle’s floating cannery on the Yukon sparked the first debate over protection of subsistence resources and was later closed.

Cobb, John N. Pacific Salmon Fisheries. Fourth edition, Appendix XIII to the Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries for 1930. Washington: GPO, 1930, pp. 405-704, photographs, tables, graphs. First published in 1917, Cobb’s 4th and final edition updates the salmon fisheries of Pacific coast from Alaska to California, including British Columbia and Russia’s Far East. Included is development of canneries, salmon biology, fishing apparatus, and methods, fishermen, and cannery workers, methods of preparing salmon, nutritive qualities of salmon, salmon output statistics, domestic and foreign trade in salmon, and west coast salmon culture and hatcheries.

Denfeld, Colt. The Akutan Whaling and Naval Fueling Station: A History. Anchorage: Alaska District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1996, 22 pp. Illustrated account of the Aleutian Island outpost.

Elliott, Charles P., Capt. U.S. Army, (ret.). “Salmon Fishing Grounds and Canneries.” Compilation of Narratives of Exploration in Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1900, pp. 738-741. Prepared for the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, 56th Congress. Elliott inspected canneries in Cordova, Kenai, Kodiak, Chignik, and the Nushagak in 1899. He noted the need for hatcheries and stronger enforcement of regulations. He also compiled information on the population of Native Alaskans and reported they suffered where canneries were located.

Ellis, Pat. From Fish Camps to Cold Storages: a Brief History of the Petersburg Area to 1927. Petersburg, AK: Clausen Memorial Museum, 1998, 102pp. A history of Petersburg’s first thirty years.

Gillette, Gary H. The Yakutat Fish Train: An Historic Overview of the Yakutat and Southern Railroad Located in Yakutat, Alaska. Juneau: Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Southeast Region, 1998, 19 pp. Illustrated account of a ten-mile rail line which operated from 1903-1969, hauling raw fish to a cannery.

Johnson (Ringsmuth), Katherine. Buried Dreams: The Rise and Fall of a Clam Cannery on the Katmai Coast. Anchorage: National Park Service Lake Clark Katmai Studies Center, 2002, 124 pp., illustrations, maps, bibliography. History of the Hemrich Packing Company razor clam cannery on Kukak Bay, located on the Gulf of Alaska shore of Katmai National Park, 1922-36, and its workers. Johnson also wrote an abbreviated history: “Life on the Razor’s Edge: The Story of a Clam Cannery at Kukak Bay.” Alaska History, Vol. 18 (2003). Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society, pp. 36-50, photographs, notes.

Lethcoe, Jim. History of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Valdez, AK: Prince William Sound Books, 1994. 169 pp., bibliography, index.The history of Prince William Sound from the first known Native habitation through its exploration by Europeans and Americans, the rise and fall of the salmon fisheries, copper and gold mines, fur trading, and finally the oil pipeline and the Exxon Valdez spill.

MacDonald, Lewis G. Chronological History of Canneries in Alaska.Alaska Department of Fisheries Annual Report, Juneau: Territory of Alaska, 1949-51. The territorial Department of Fisheries (Fish and Game after 1957) published annual reports beginning in 1949. The reports summarized department activities, and management and research issues, among other things. Notable in the first three issues is MacDonald’s chronology of Alaska canneries. The 1949 report lists canneries in Southeast Alaska, pp. 30-36; the 1950 report features Western Alaska (Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula), pp. 57-62; and the 1951 report lists canneries in Central Alaska (Kodiak, Cook Inlet, Kenai Peninsula, and Prince William Sound), pp. 71-84.

Mobley, Charles M. Cultural Resource Inventory and Evaluation of the Hood Bay Cannery, Admiralty Island, Alaska. Anchorage: Charles M. Mobley & Associates, 1999, 96pp. History of structures and operations at the site of a southeast Alaska cannery that burned in 1961; includes an appendix listing Angoon residents who worked at the cannery in 1953.

Ringsmuth, Katherine Johnson. Snug Harbor Cannery: A Beacon on the Forgotten Shore, 1919‐1980. Anchorage, AK: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2005, 156 pp., illustrations, maps. The lives of those who built, managed, and worked at the Snug Harbor Cannery, on Chisik Island, along the west shore of Cook Inlet.

6 – Companies and Processing

Alaska Packers Association. Service: The True Measurement of Any Institution Lies in the Service it Renders. San Francisco, CA: 1920, 36 pp. Account of the company’s response to the Spanish influenza pandemic in 1919 that left scores dead in Bristol Bay. Federal authorities were unprepared and unwilling to respond, leaving the salmon packer to care for local victims. The APA refused compensation for its efforts.

Beard, Harry R. NEFCO: From Sea to World Markets. Seattle, WA: New England Fish Company, 1953, 123 pp., photographs, index. A company history on its 85th anniversary, NEFCO was a major processor in Alaska.

Cobb, John N. The Canning of Fishery Products. Seattle, WA: Miller Freeman, 1919, ix, 214 pp, photographs, tables, index, advertisements. The history and practice of canning various types of seafood, ranging from salmon to whale meat, with much technical information. Freeman was publisher of Pacific Fisherman.

Crawford, W. I. “The Development of the Salmon Canning Industry.” A History of the Canning Industry by its Most Prominent Men. Baltimore, MD: The Canning Trade, Arthur I. Judge, editor, 1914, pp. 46-48. A souvenir of the 7th annual convention of the National Canners’ and Allied Associations in Baltimore. Crawford, former secretary of the “Salmon Canners Associations,” noted, “Alaska fisheries alone have produced many times as much wealth as her gold and copper mines.”

DeMuth, Phyllis and Michael Sullivan. A Guide to the Alaska Packers Association Records, 1891-1970, in the Alaska Historical Library. Juneau: Alaska Department of Education, Division of State Libraries and Museums, 1983, 67 pp., photographs. An invaluable inventory of the holdings of APA material in the state historical library in Juneau. Includes a historical note on the APA and the company records by Ellen Greenberg.

Edwards, Jack. How Old is that Label? A Guide for Dating Salmon Labels. Long Beach, WA: Chinook Observer, 1994 (revised 2003), 86 pp., illustrations, appendix. Guide to the colorful artwork used on salmon can labels in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Includes a brief history of the industry and list of packing companies.

Higgins, Arthur W. Inside an Alaskan Cannery. Juneau: Arthur W. Higgins, 1972, 50 pp., illustrations. Illustrated by the author, a description of cannery work in the processing of salmon, shrimp, and king crab. Edited by Robert Thorstenson of Petersburg Fisheries.

Hume, R. D. Salmon of the Pacific Coast: Their influence Upon the Industries and Share in the Development of the Northwest. San Francisco, CA: Schmidt Label & Lith. Co., 1893, 52 pp., illustrations, labels, advertisements. A history of the salmon fishery and the canning process prior to mechanization written by one of the industry’s pioneers.

Martin, Irene, and Roger T. Tetlow. Flight of the Bumble Bee: The Columbia River Packers Association and a Century in Pursuit of Fish. Portland, OR: Chinook Observer, 2011, 230 pp., photographs. The history of CRPA, a major packer of Alaska salmon that later adopted its premier brand name: Bumble Bee.

May, Earl Chapin. The Canning Clan: A Pageant of Pioneering Americans. New York: MacMillan Company, 1937, xiii, 410 pp., photographs, addenda, bibliography, index. A history of the canning industry from its origins in 19th century France to contemporary uses to preserve vegetables, fruit, meat and fish, with many references to Alaska salmon.

Newell, Diane, editor. The Development of the Pacific Salmon-Canning Industry: AGrown Man’s Game. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989, 303 pp., photographs, illustrations, tables, glossary, bibliography, notes, index. Based on documents collected by Henry Doyle, founder and first general manager of British Columbia Packers, the pioneer fish-packing company acquired by the Canadian Fishing Company in the 1990s.

Pacific American Fisheries. The Salmon Industry: From Trap to Can. Seattle, WA: 1928 (revised), 42 pp., photographs, illustrations. A promotional pamphlet outlining the life history and different species of salmon, and the harvesting and processing industries. After WWII PAF issued an updated pamphlet: Salute to Salmon … Food Supreme, c. late 1940s, 46 pp., photographs, bibliography, which seems to incorporate material from 1934’s The Story of Salmon (see Young, Isabel).

Radke, August C. Pacific American Fisheries, Inc.: History of a Washington State Salmon Packing Company, 1890-

Founded in Bellingham, Washington in 1899, Pacific American Fisheries was a major canner in Alaska through 1966. Pacific Fisherman Yearbook 1952.

Ringsmuth, Katherine Johnson. “Mug-Up: The Role of the Messhall in Cannery Life.” Proceedings of the Alaska Historical Society 2007 conference in Homer, Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society, 2009, pp. 184-196, photographs. Historical perspective and personal memories of cannery life, all centered around the messhall. “Mug-up” is a regional term for coffee break.

Spector, Robert. Pride of the Sea: The American Seafoods Story. Seattle, WA: Documentary Media, 2013, 152, photographs, recipes, index. The history, personalities, and issues that shaped growth of the largest operator of factory trawlers in the Bering Sea.

Stacey, Duncan A. Sockeye and Tinplate: Technological Change in the Fraser River Canning Industry 1871-1912. British Columbia Provincial Museum, Heritage Record No. 15, 1982, 62 pp., photographs, tables, endnotes, glossary. Study of mechanization of the salmon canning industry at the turn of the 20th century. While focused on Canadian canners, it is analogous to changes that occurred in Alaska.

Strecker, C. H. The Seal of Safety: Year Book of the Max Ams Machine Company. Mount Vernon, NY: Max Ams Machine Co. Publicity Department, 1913, 206 pp., photographs, illustrations. Max Ams pioneered the double-seam process to seal cans without soldering. The year book is part history, with references to the salmon and other industries, but mostly advertisement. A second edition was published in 1915.

Van Amerongen, John. Catching a Deckload of Dreams: Chuck Bundrant and the Story of Trident Seafoods. Seattle, WA: Trident Seafoods, 2013, 376 pp., photographs, index. Biography of Trident’s founder and a history of Alaska’s largest seafood processing company. Van Amerongen was longtime editor of the former Alaska Fisherman’s Journal.

Van Cleave, Richard H. “The New England Fish Company: History in a Photo Album.” Alaska History, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2013). Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society, pp. 54-62, photographs. Selection of historic photographs taken at the NEFCO cannery in Ketchikan in the 1930s from an album donated by the company to the Ketchikan Museum and annotated by the museum’s former senior curator.

Warren, Brad. The Rise of Icicle Seafoods: From the Roots of Alaska Statehood. Seattle, WA: Warren and Co. Publishing, 2005, 194 pp., photographs. History of Petersburg-based Icicle Seafoods, a major Alaska seafood processor, and many of its personalities.

Young, Isabel N. The Story of Salmon. New York: American Can Company, 1934, 48 pp., photographs, bibliography, recipes. The natural history, commercial uses, and preparation of salmon. Intended to promote a client, American Can’s motto was: “We manufacture cans. We do no canning.”

7 – Labor

Transferring salmon to cannery from dock where they have been dressed and cleaned. Jones, E. Lester. Report of Alaska Investigations in 1914. Washington: GPO, 1915.

Alaska and Washington Advisory Committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Bringing an Industry into the 80’s: Affirmative Action in Seafood Processing. 1983, ix, 81 pp., appendices, endnotes. A study of discrimination against minorities and women in housing and hiring practices by the seafood processing industry, with committee recommendations.

Buchholdt, Thelma. Filipinos in Alaska, 1788-1958. Anchorage: Aboriginal Press, 1996, 187 pp. The history and culture of the Filipinos in Alaska from the record of the first merchant seaman in the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century, their use as cannery workers, and through the community just before Statehood.

Chew, Ron. Remembering Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes: The Legacy of Filipino American Labor Activism. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012, vii, 145 pp, afterword, references. The stories of union activists seeking reforms for Filipino cannery workers in Alaska (“Alaskeros”), focusing on Domingo and Viernes whose murder in Seattle in 1981 was linked to Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Includes a reprint of Viernes’s 1977 history of the Alaskero union activities.

Crutchfield, James A. “Collective Bargaining in the Pacific Coast Fisheries: The Economic Issues.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol 8, No. 4 (July, 1955), pp. 541-556. An analysis of the consequences of regulatory rulings that denied or limited collective bargaining in the fishing industry and argues for reestablishment of those rights.

Casaday, Lauren Wilde. Labor Unrest and the Labor Movement in the Salmon Industry of the Pacific Coast. Dissertation, University of California, 1938, xiii, 734 pp., illustrations. Frank and detailed discussion of exploitation of cannery workers in Alaska and elsewhere, the China contract system, and “slop chest” economics.

Friday, Chris. Organizing Asian American Labor: The Pacific Coast Canned-Salmon Industry, 1870-1942. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1994, 276 pp, appendix, notes, index. From the beginning of the industry, people of Asian ancestry toiled in salmon canneries from California to Alaska, forming the predominant labor force in an industry that played a central role in the economic growth of the coastal western states and territories. This book traces development in the cannery labor market and examines the workers’ creation of work cultures and social communities.

Guimary,Donald. Marumina Trabaho (“Dirty Work”), A History of Labor in Alaska’s Salmon Canning Industry. New York: iUniverse, 2006, 336 pp., tables, bibliography. The history of Filipino immigrant labor involved in the production of Alaska canned salmon from 1915 through the 1960s, including the author’s slime line experiences as a teenager.

Hughes, Jonathan. “The Great Strike at Nushagak Station, 1951: Institutional Gridlock.” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. XLII, No. 1 (March 1982), pp. 1-20. A first-hand perspective on the 1951 Bristol Bay strike by a once UW grad student who worked at the APA’s Clarks Point cannery that summer and later became an Oxford-educated professor of economics.

McBride, Jack, and Val Angasan. Challenge in Bristol Bay: The Issues of Salmon Marketing. Dillingham, AK: Imarpik Regional Aquaculture Association, 1981, 36 pp., photographs. Following a salmon price dispute in Bristol Bay in 1980, Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond appointed a task force to investigate allegations of violence during the strike and the state’s role in salmon marketing. Imarkpik produced this report—including excerpts of hearings in Dillingham, Naknek, and Juneau—and the Association’s recommendations. Additional information on the 1980 Bristol Bay strike is available includes the Governor’s Task Force report and a report by the state Senate Judiciary Committee that itself includes additional testimony, transcripts of radio traffic among fishermen, and a separate report by UFA.

Andrews, Ralph W., and A. K. Larssen. Fish and Ships: This Was Fishing from the Columbia to Bristol Bay. New York: Bonanza Books, 1965, 170 pp, numerous photographs, index. Compilation of articles and photographs about the history of salmon, halibut, and other fisheries from Oregon to Alaska, and the vessels employed.

Blair, Carvel Hall and Willits Dyer Ansel. A Guide to Fishing Boats and Their Gear. Cambridge, MD: Cornell Maritime Press, 1968, 142 pp., glossary, bibliography, index. The basic methods of commercial fisherman are described, the gear illustrated and its use explained. Over 50 types of commercial fishing craft, including some of those used in Alaska, are illustrated and described.

Breiby, John C. Rigging the Spritsail on Bristol Bay Double Ender. Self-published, 2006, iii, 30 pp., photographs, illustrations, glossary. Technical manual on how to rig the distinctive sail on a Bristol Bay (AKA Columbia River) sailboat, based on interviews with former fishermen. The glossary of sailboat terms is especially helpful.

Dyal, Donald H. The Fleet Book of the Alaska Packers Association, 1893-1945: An Historical Overview and List. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2014, 226 pp., photographs. An interpretive history of the rise and fall of the largest sailing fleet ever assembled. Includes a listing of the vessels owned and operated by the APA, and stories of its triumph and tragedy.

Gibbs, Jim. Alaskan Maritime. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publications, 1997, 158 pp. Alaska’s past and present still depend on seas routes: from Russian exploration and exploitation to the modern fishing and transportation of oil and other commodities.

King, Irving H. The Coast Guard Expands, 1865-1915: New Roles, New Frontiers. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996, 283 pp. The third part of his history of the Revenue Cutter Service before its transformation into the Coast Guard includes much about its actions in Alaska. King also wrote George Washington’s Coast Guard: Origins of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1789-1801. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1978, 229 pp., and The Coast Guard Under Sail: The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1789-1865. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989, 288 pp.

King, Robert W. “Sailboats and Power in Bristol Bay: The Bristol Bay Salmon Fishery, 1922-1951.” Alaska History, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2013), Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society, pp. 36-53, photographs, notes. Bristol Bay fishermen were legally required to work from sailboats until 1951, making it one of the last major sailboat fisheries. This article examines the reasons for the prohibition of motors and the pressure that forced the policy change.

Mackovjak, James. Aleutian Freighter: A History of Shipping in the Aleutian Islands. Seattle, WA: Documentary Media, 2012, 113 pp., photographs, illustrations, maps, endnotes, fleet list. Profiles of the ships, companies, and people involved in shipping in the Aleutian Islands, much of which was related to the fishing industry, especially after passage of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act.

MacMullen, Jerry. Star of India: The Log of an Iron Ship. Berkeley, CA, Howell-North Books, 1961, 124 pp., photographs, illustrations, appendices, index. History of one of the Alaska Packer’s Star ships, the ex-Euterpe, from her launch in Ireland in 1863 through her service in Alaska from 1902 to 1922. The ship is now on exhibit in San Diego.

Newell, Gordon, editor. The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, WA: Superior Publishing Company, 1966, 707 pp., photographs, index. An illustrated review of the growth of the maritime industry in the Pacific Northwest, beginning in 1895. Newell later followed up with a companion edition: The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 1966-1976, Seattle, WA: Superior Publishing Company, 1977, 255 pp, photographs, index.

Shields, Ed. Salt of the Sea: The Pacific Coast Cod Fishery and the Last Days of Sail. Lopez Island, WA: Pacific Heritage Press, 2001, 238 pp., photographs, maps, appendices, index. History and personal remembrances of the cod fishery in the North Pacific and Bering Sea, 1863-1950. Shields participated in the final decades of the fishery and helped preserve the schooner CA Thayer. Includes a biography of his father, J.E. Shields, who was involved in the industry beginning in 1911.

Strobridge, Truman R., and Dennis L. Noble. Alaska and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1867-1915. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999, 223 pp. History of the predecessor to the Coast Guard which was actively involved in early investigations of Alaska salmon and the growing fishing industry.

Warner, William W. Distant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic Fisherman. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1983, 338 pp, photographs. History of the post-WWII development of factory trawlers. Warner earned the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Beautiful Swimmers, his book on the watermen of Chesapeake Bay.

9 – Congressional Hearings and Reports

44th Congress. Seal Fisheries in Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1876, 277 pp. House of Representatives Ex. Doc. 83. Report on the status of Pribilof fur seal fisheries and including primary source material dating to 1870 and including the Alaska Commercial Company.

50th Congress. Investigation of the Fur-Seal and other Fisheries of Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1889. L, 415 pp. Report by the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

57th Congress. Salmon Fisheries of Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1902. Hearing before the Committee on the Territories, U.S. House of Representatives.

58th Congress. Conditions in Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1904, 32 pp, map. Report of the 1903 subcommittee sent to Alaska and led by Senator William Paul Dillingham (R-VT). Although sent to investigate the gold rush, the report notes enormous growth in the salmon industry. Accompanied by Hearings before the Subcommittee of Committee on Territories Appointed to Investigate Conditions in Alaska. Washington: GPO, 276 pp., index. Transcripts of testimony and other presentations before the subcommittee.

61st Congress. Amendment of Laws Relating to Fisheries and other Occupations in Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1910, 119 pp., tables. A series of nine hearings before the House Committee on the Territories, April to June 1910, on taxation of the fishing industry, hatchery rebates, and fish traps. Includes statements from Alaska delegate James Wickersham, the Alaska Packers Association, Bureau of Fisheries, and others.

62nd Congress. Alaska Fisheries. Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Fisheries, United States Senate, on S.5856, a Bill to Amend an Act for the Protection and Regulation of the Fisheries of Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1912, 536 pp., index. Hearings from April 11 to June 28, 1912, on matters including taxation of the canned salmon industry, the use of hatcheries and tax rebates, concerns over the use of herring for fertilizer, and other matters. Testimony from Alaska Gov. Walter E. Clark, Delegate James Wickersham, industry, and others.

68th Congress. Fisheries of Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1924, 322+ pp. Hearings before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on HR 2714. Known as the “White Act” after Maine Congressman Wallace White, the legislation extended federal authority and allowed the Commerce Department to regulate the salmon fisheries.

74th Congress. Fish Traps in Alaskan Waters. Washington: GPO, 1936, 288 pp. Transcript of hearings on January 15 and 16, 1936, before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, on HR 5254 and HR 8213. Both would have banned fish traps from Alaska waters.

75th Congress. Alaska Salmon Fishery. Washington, GPO, 195 pp., appendices. Hearings before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on HR 8344, Feb. 1, 2, 1938. HR 8344 was introduced after Japanese fishing operations in Bristol Bay and was intended to prevent foreign depletion of Alaska salmon fisheries. The hearing included testimony from U.S. canners, union officials, and political leaders. Includes appendices regarding Alaska fishery regulations and a report on subsidies afforded the Japanese fleet.

76th Congress. Committee Study Resolution–Alaskan Fisheries Hearings. Washington: GPO, 1939-40. After Alaska delegate Anthony Dimond’s proposed legislation to transfer control of Alaska fisheries to the Territorial Legislature and to ban fish traps, H. Res. 162 authorized a study of Alaska fisheries. Hearings by the Subcommittee on Alaskan Fisheries of the House Committee of Merchant Marine and Fisheries were held in Alaska, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and included the Territorial Legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries. Great source of testimony from witnesses including fishermen; industry, municipal, and territorial leaders and others on contemporary issues facing the fishery. In four parts: Part I, Hearings in Anchorage and Kodiak, September 1939, iv, 272 pp.; Part II, Hearings in Cordova, Sitka, Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Craig, September 1939, iv, pp. 273-630; Part III, Hearings in Ketchikan and Seattle, September 1939, iv, pp. 631-1010, appendix, tables, written statements; and Part IV, Hearings in Washington, DC, January and February, 1940, iii, pp. 1011-1136, appendix, written statements. Part III includes Findings and Recommendations of the Joint Committee on Fisheries of the Legislature of the Territory of Alaska, and The Problem of Alaskan Development, a report to the Secretary of Interior by Under-Secretary Harry Slattery.

76th Congress. Alaskan Fisheries. Washington: GPO, 1940, 158 pp. Hearings before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on March 12 and 14, 1940 on legislation to create an Alaskan Fisheries Commission, the seizure of boats and gear, changes in the weekly closed period for trollers, set netting in Nelson Lagoon, and employment of resident labor in Alaska fisheries.

83rd Congress. Discussion on Salmon Fishing, Nushagak River, Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1953. The House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs heading on March 27, 1953 included testimony from union leaders in Dillingham who had concerns about the influence of absentee labor, cannery ownership, and regulatory authorities on the local economy, with reference to disaster declaration requested by the Dillingham Public Utility District (now the City of Dillingham).

84th Congress. Pacific Coast and Alaska Fisheries. Washington: GPO, 1956. Hearings before the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on S. Res 13, on various issues including foreign encroachment and fish traps. Hearings were held in Anchorage, Juneau, Seattle, San Francisco, San Pedro, and Tacoma between October and December, 1955.

87th Congress. Collective Bargaining for Fishermen. Washington: GPO, 1963. Hearings before the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on S.3093, legislation to clarify fishermen’s rights to bargain for fish prices. Hearings were held in Seattle, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Anchorage, Dillingham, and Kodiak between October 15 and November 8, 1962.

88th Congress. The Postwar Expansion of Russia’s Fishing Industry. Washington: GPO, 1964, ix, 50 pp., maps, tables, appendices. The Senate Committee on Commerce hearing on January 23, 1964, examined the growth of Russian factory trawler operations in the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and elsewhere. Includes appendices on Russian international fishing agreements, production statistics, and translations of open-source material on Russian catches of rockfish and perch.

94th Congress. A Legislative History of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. Washington: GPO, 1976, iii, 1176 pp. Prepared at the request of senators Warren Magnuson and Ernest Hollings, this historical compilation includes legislative drafts, reports, summaries, and transcripts of House and Senate hearings on original passage of what is now known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

97th Congress. 200-Mile Fishery – ICCAT: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation and the Environment of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act Oversight. Washington: GPO, 1982, 624 pp. The hearings in September and October, 1981, focused on Magnuson-Stevens Act oversight and provisions to allow foreign processing within state territorial waters, an issue in the Togiak herring fishery. The ICCAT reference is to testimony on Atlantic tuna issues.

102nd Congress. Convention for the Conservation of Anadromous Stocks in the North Pacific Ocean. Washington: GPO, 1992. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on June 17, 1992 discussed ratification of the multilateral North Pacific Anadromous Fish Convention, which succeeded the tri-partite International North Pacific Fishery Convention.

Memorandum NMFS-F/SPO-125, 413 p., photographs, maps, appendices. Focusing on the scientific research, the authors also summarize the history of the fishery and include a photographic essay of salmon labels and other ephemera from the fishery.

Gilbert, Charles Henry. Contributions to the Life History of the Sockeye Salmon. Report of the British Columbia Commissioner of Fisheries. Vancouver, BC: British Columbia Fisheries Department, 1912-1921. The Stanford University professor wrote annual reports from his decade of research on Canada’s Fraser River sockeye. The reports accurately described the life history of sockeye salmon, including confirmation of the theory that salmon returned to spawn in their river of origin.

Gilbert, Charles H. Age at Maturity of the Pacific Coast Salmon of the Genus Oncorhynchus. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXXII. Washington: GPO, 1913, 22 pp., 17 plates of salmon scales. Gilbert corrected erroneous interpretations of the age of salmon based on his interpretation of rings on salmon scales.

Gilbert, Charles H., and Henry O’Malley. “Special Investigation of Salmon Fishery in Central and Western Alaska.” Alaska Fishery and Fur Industries for 1919, Appendix IX to the Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1919. Washington: GPO, 1920, pp. 143-160. Following the failure of the Bristol Bay salmon run in 1919, Gilbert and O’Malley issued a dire warning that the fishery was threatened with extinction, which started the debate that led to passage of the White Act in 1924. The same issue also includes Henry B. Ward’s Investigation of Copper River Salmon Fishery, pp.119-140.

Gilbert, Charles H., and Henry O’Malley. “Investigations of the Salmon Fisheries of the Yukon River.” Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920. Washington: GPO, 1921, pp. 128-154. Examination of the stock composition and status of Yukon salmon fisheries and concerns raised about the impact on subsistence users by a floating cannery that operated near the mouth of the river. Gilbert and O’Malley recommended closing the cannery, and it later was.

Gilbert, Charles H. “The Salmon of the Yukon River.” Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXXVIII, 1921-22. Washington: GPO, 1922, pp. 317-332, photographs. Contains basic biological information on the growth rates and timing of runs of king, chum and other salmon in the Yukon. Numerous photographs of fish scales.

Jordan, David Starr. “The Parent Stream Theory of the Return of Salmon.” The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LXIV (November 1903). Lancaster, PA: The Science Press, pp. 48-52. The first president of Stanford University dismissed the popular theory that salmon returned to their natal streams. His pupil, Charles H. Gilbert, would later prove him wrong. Jordan also described The Salmon and Salmon Streams of Alaska in the December, 1903, issue of Popular Science, pp. 165-172.

Mitsuoka, Rae R., et al. Fifty Years of Cooperation and Commitment, 1931-1981, The Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center, Seattle: WA: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1982, 294 pp., photographs, references. Articles on the history of research and management efforts by the Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center and presentations at the 50th Anniversary Symposium, in 1981. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS F/NWC-34.

Myers, Katherine, editor. Workshop on Climate Change and Salmon Production: Vancouver, BC: NPAFC, 1998, 49pp. Technical report from a workshop that examined the impact of changing climate regimes on populations of salmon and other species in the North Pacific.

Nelson, Michael. History and Management of the Nushagak Chinook Salmon Fishery. Anchorage: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1987, vi, 137 pp., maps, tables, graphs, appendices. A history of the uses and management of Nushagak chinook salmon by ADFG’s longtime manager of the district.

Rich, Willis H., and Edward M. Ball. Statistical Review of the Alaska Salmon Fisheries. Washington: GPO, 1928-33, graphs, tables. In four parts, included as part of the Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries for the year cited, a detailed statistical analysis of Alaska salmon fisheries by region: Part 1: Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula, 1928, pp. 41-95; Part 2: Chignik to Resurrection Bay (including Kodiak and Cook Inlet), 1931, pp. 643-712; Part 3: Prince William Sound, Copper River and Bering River, 1932, pp. 187-247; andPart 4: Southeastern Alaska, 1933, pp. 437-643. Part 1 includes a summary of federal fishery laws and regulations up to 1924 and passage of the White Act; Part 4 includes an index for all four parts of the series.

Thompson, William F. “The Research Program of the Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) in Bristol Bay, 1945-58.” Studies of Alaska Red Salmon. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1962, pp. 1-36, citations. Thompson founded the industry-funded FRI to address the post WWII decline of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon. The institute remains active today in research in Bristol Bay and elsewhere.

Worm, Boris, et al. “Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services,” in Science, Vol. 314, No. 5800 (November 2006). Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, pp. 787-790. Notable article about how the loss of marine biodiversity has impaired the ocean’s ability to rear seafood, preserve water quality, and recover from short-term changes. His conclusion that all species currently fished around the globe would collapse by 2048 sparked much controversy and debate.

11 – Marine Fisheries, Pre–Magnuson-Stevens Act (1976)

Allen, Edward Weber. North Pacific: Japan, Siberia, Alaska, Canada. New York: Professional and Technical Press, 1936, xvi, 263 pp., photographs, maps, bibliography, index. A member of the International Fisheries Commission (later the IPHC), Allen made observations on fisheries, diplomatic relations, and related matters on a trip from Seattle to Alaska, Kamchatka, and Japan. Notable are his observations on militarization in Japan, where his book was banned.

Atkinson, Clinton E. “A Brief Review of the Salmon Fishery in the Aleutian Islands Area.” Bulletin No. 1 of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission. Vancouver, BC: 1955, pp. 95-104, graphs, tables. Background on salmon fisheries in the Aleutian Islands that were potentially impacted by the 1953 INPFC treaty with Japan and Canada.

Chitwood, Philip E. Japanese, Soviet, and South Korean Fisheries off Alaska, Development and History through 1966. Washington: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Circular 310, 1969, iii, 34 pp, photographs, maps, tables, references. Chronology of foreign fishing operations in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering and Chukchi seas from 1930 to 1966. Includes high-seas salmon, groundfish, crab, and shrimp fisheries, as well as whaling.

Congressional Research Service. Treaties and other International Agreements on Fisheries, Oceanographic Resources, and Wildlife to which the United States is Party. Washington: GPO, 1974, 968 pp. A compilation of treaties on fisheries and related matters prepared for the Senate Commerce Committee. Among treaties affecting Alaska are: the Halibut Convention with Canada; bilateral fishing agreements with Canada, Japan, USSR, and others; the tripartite Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific (INPFC); whaling treaties; the Law of the Sea; and an 1818 Convention with Canada “Respecting the Fisheries, Boundary, and the Restoration of Slaves.”

Fredin, Reynold A., et al. Pacific Salmon and the High Seas Salmon Fisheries of Japan. Seattle, WA: National Marine Fisheries Service, 1977, iv, 324 pp., photographs, tables, graphs, appendices. Detailed review of high-seas harvests of salmon under the International North Pacific Fisheries Convention (INPFC) and other authorities, and its impact on Alaska stocks.

Fukuhara, Francis M., and George K. Tanonaka. “A Japanese High-Seas Salmon Fishery in the North Pacific since 1952.” Commercial Fisheries Review, Seattle, WA: U. S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Vol. 20, No. 4, (April 1958), 16 pp., maps, charts, tables. An update on the status of INPFC fisheries responding to concerns that high-seas harvests exceeded 50 million salmon annually. Fukuhara and Tanonaka were research biologists with the USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in Seattle.

Guthrie-Shimizu, Sayuri. “Occupation Policy and the Japanese Fisheries Management Regime, 1945-1952.” Democracy in Occupied Japan: The U.S. Occupation and Japanese Politics and Society. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, Taylor & Francis LTD, 2007, pp. 48-66, notes. The multiple issues and politics facing Supreme Commander of Allied Powers Gen. Douglas MacArthur as he rebuilt the Japanese fishing industry after World War II and culminating with negotiation of the INPFC in 1952.

Kasahara, Hiroshi. Fisheries Resources of the North Pacific Ocean: H. R. MacMillan Lectures in Fisheries. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Institute of Fisheries, 1961, Part 1: pp. 1-135; Part II: pp. 137-202, maps, charts, tables, illustrations, bibliography. Series of lectures by the Assistant Director of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission on the distribution and harvest of marine fisheries in the North Pacific and Bering Sea. Part I covers salmon, herring, cod, pollock, and other species. Part II covers other Bering Sea bottomfish and king crab, and other fisheries.

Parker, Walter B. International Fisheries Regimes of the North Pacific. Anchorage: University of Alaska Arctic Environmental Information and Data Center, 1974, 63 pp., maps, graphs, photographs, index. Summary of international agreements covering fur seals, salmon, halibut, crab, and the need for alternatives to international fishery agreements.

Riesenfeld, Stefan A. Protection of Coastal Fisheries under International Law. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1942, xii, 296 pp., indices. Detailed history of efforts by various nations to define the international legal status of the sea from the middle ages, through the “cannon-shot,” or 3-mile rule, and to the beginning of World War II. Subsequent events would lead to the 200-mile limit, but Riesenfeld’s monograph, republished by William S. Hein & Co, Buffalo, NY, is a lively, if wonkish, history of international steps leading to its establishment, including discussion of the Bering Sea fur seal arbitration hearings.

Scheiber, Harry N. “Origins of the Abstention Doctrine in Ocean Law: Japanese-U.S. Relations and the Pacific Fisheries, 1937-58.” Ecology Law Quarterly, Vol. 16:23 (1989). Berkeley, CA: University of California, pp. 23-95, map, footnotes. Detailed legal history of events leading to the 1952 signing of the International North Pacific Fisheries Convention. Includes discussion of Japanese fishing activity in Bristol Bay in 1937.

Scheiber, Harry N. Inter-Allied Conflicts and Ocean Law, 1945-53: The Occupation Command’s Revival of Japanese Whaling and Marine Fisheries. Taiwan: Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, 2001, x, 208 pp., photographs, maps, appendices. Actions taken by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and allied nations to restore Japanese marine fisheries following World War II led to the International North Pacific Fisheries Convention in 1952, which had a significant impact on Alaska.

Society of Oceanic Fishing Promotion. Concerning Fishing in Eastern North Pacific on the High Seas in the Direction of Bristol Bay. Tokyo: Kaiyo Gyogyo Shinko Kyokai, 1937, 11 pp. Japan’s rebuttal to criticism of their salmon fishing off Bristol Bay in 1937. Their description of the Bering Sea as an “extension of the Bay of Tokyo” inflamed the issue.

Sparck, Harold. A New North Pacific International Order for Pelagic Fisheries. Master’s thesis, University of Virginia, 1990, xiii, 105 pp, maps, tables, bibliography, appendices. A Bethel-based fisheries advocate, Sparck analyzed the growing threat from high-seas driftnets, which he proposed should be banned, and called on the U.S. to withdraw from the INPFC, both of which later happened. His thesis includes a summary of historic fishing activity on the high seas, attempts to govern it, and proposed legislation.

12 – Marine Fisheries, Post–Magnuson-Stevens Act (1976)

94th Congress. A Legislative History of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. Washington: GPO, 1976, iii, 1176 pp. Prepared at the request of senators Warren Magnuson and Ernest Hollings, this historical compilation includes legislative drafts, reports, summaries, and transcripts of House and Senate hearings on original passage of what is now known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Ito, Jun, William Shaw and Robert L. Burgner, editors. Symposium on Biology, Distribution and Stock Assessment of Species Caught in the High Seas Driftnet Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean. Vancouver, BC: NPAFC, 1993, 576 pp., maps, tables. Technical examination of issues involved in the high-seas driftnet fisheries accused of intercepting salmon. In three volumes, Vol. 1, 90 pp., has a good description and photographs of the squid and other fisheries involved. Vol. 2 examines the oceanography, biology and ecology, and Vol. 3 looks at the harvest and impact of fisheries. The 1991 symposium was organized by the INPFC in advance of UN consideration of the issue. Late that year, the UN adopted a ban on the driftnets. The report was published by the NPAFC after the INPFC was dissolved in 1993.

Metleff, Brenda R., editor. Alaska Fisheries: 200 Years and 200 Miles of Change, Proceedings of the 29th Alaska Science Conference. Anchorage: Alaska Sea Grant, 1979, ix, 787 pp. Includes many technical papers and also presentations on the status of fish stocks, development of management systems, and the future for Alaska’s fisheries after passage of the 1976 Fishery Conservation and Management Act (now known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act).

North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Responsible Fisheries Management into the 21st Century. Anchorage: NPFMC, 2002, 23 pp., photographs, maps, tables, graphs. As reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act approached, the NPFMC argued that the legislation worked with its precautionary approach, and use of conservative catch limits. The 2006 reauthorization largely incorporated aspects of the so-called “Alaska model.”

Parfit, Michael. “Diminishing Returns: Exploiting the Ocean’s Bounty.” National Geographic, Vol. 188, No. 5 (November 1995). Washington: National Geographic Society, pp. 1-37, photographs, illustrations. Article on the global fish collapse, includes references to Alaska’s use of individual fishing quotas and illustrations of various fishing vessels, including the inner workings of an Alaska factory trawler. The same issue includes “Tsukiji, the Great Tokyo Fish Market,” by T. R. Reid and photographer James Stanfield, pp. 38-55.

Strong, James W., and Keith R. Criddle. Fishing for Pollock in a Sea of Change: A Historical Analysis of the Bering Sea Pollock Fishery. Fairbanks:Alaska Sea Grant program, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2013, vi, 177 pp., photographs, graphs, citations. In terms of volume, Alaska pollock is among the largest fisheries in the world. This analysis examines the history of the fishery from foreign exploitation in the 1930s, its Americanization under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and “rationalization” under the American Fisheries Act. The authors also discuss current issues facing the fishery and the Community Development Quota program.

Witherell, David and Doug Woodby. “Application of Marine Protected Areas for Sustainable Production and Marine Biodiversity off Alaska.”Marine Fisheries Review, Vol. 67, No. 1 (2005). Seattle, WA: National Marine Fisheries Service, pp. 1-27, maps, tables, citations. A detailed summary of the more than 1.5 million square nautical miles of ocean off Alaska restricted or closed to fishing. This includes trawl closures, savings areas, marine reserves, national parks, and essential fish habitat.

Witherell, David, and Megan Peterson. Groundfish Species Profiles: Biology, Management, Catch History, Economics, Assessment, Fishery. Anchorage: North Pacific Fishery Management Council, 2011, 59 pp., photographs, graphs tables. Catch information is dated but still a useful summary of fisheries managed by the NPFMC based on the council’s Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports. Includes the history and status of fisheries for pollock, cod, flatfish, rockfish, and other species harvested in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

13 – Halibut

Pacific Halibut are now recognized as hippoglossus stenolepis, but in 1899 were considered the same as Atlantic Halibut. Moser, Jefferson. The Salmon and Salmon Fisheries in Alaska. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1898, Washington: GPO, 1899.

Bell, F. Heward. The Pacific Halibut: The Resource, and the Fishery. Anchorage: Northwest Publishing Company, 1981, 267 pp., photographs, maps, graphs, tables, bibliography, index. Encyclopedic overview of the halibut fishery through 1981: the resource, its biology, harvesting, processing, economics, and management, written by a former member of the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

Caldwell, Donna, and Francis Caldwell. The Ebb and the Flood: A History of the Halibut Producers Cooperative. Seattle: Waterfront Press, 1980, 108 pp., photographs. History of the halibut co-op from 1945, written by a fisherman and his wife.

Crutchfield, James A., and Arnold Zellner, editors. The Economics of Marine Resources and Conservation Policy: The Pacific Halibut Case Study with Commentary. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003.

Dunn, J. Richard. “William Francis Thompson (1888-1965) and His Pioneering Studies of the Pacific Halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis.” Marine Fisheries Review, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2001). Seattle, WA: National Marine Fisheries Service, pp. 5-14, photographs. Profile of the biologist whose early scientific work led to the Halibut Convention of 1923 and later became the commission’s director.

Kahrs, Jeff. One Hook at a Time: A History of the Deep Sea Fishermen’s Union of the Pacific. Seattle: Documentary Media, 2014, 144 pp., photographs, glossary, index. Formed in 1912, the Union spanned from the dory days through changing regulation, intense competition, and the harsh realities of fishing halibut and cod in the North Pacific.

Suchy, Jana M. Alaska Fishing Gold Rush of the 1980s. Self-published, 2015, 364 pp., photographs. Photographs and articles about the pre-IFQ derby days of halibut, plus Southeast salmon trolling and rockfish fisheries. A first edition was 264 pages but the second “Sitka edition” includes 200 additional photographs.

Thompson, William F. The Problem of the Halibut, in Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries for the Year Ending December 31, 1915. Victoria, BC: Province of British Columbia, 1916, pp. 130-140. A year into his study on halibut, Thompson reviewed the life history of the species, declining catch rates, risk of depletion, and “dearth of information” available to find solutions. Thompson would later fill those gaps; this report shows an inquisitive scientific mind thinking through a challenging problem. The commissioner’s report also includes a summary of catch statistics.

Thompson, William F., and Norman L. Freeman. History of the Pacific Halibut Fishery: Report No. 5 of the International Fisheries Commission. Vancouver, BC: Wrigley Printing Co., 1930, 58 pp., forward, maps, charts, photographs, bibliography. A history of the development of the Pacific halibut fishery from Oregon to Alaska and of conservation issues that led to the 1923 treaty between the United States and Great Britain (Canada) for the preservation of halibut in the North Pacific.

Thompson, William F. Conservation of the Pacific Halibut: An International Experiment, in Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1935. Washington: GPO, 1935, pp. 361 – 382, plates, charts and diagrams, bibliography. An overview of the issues leading to the halibut treaty of 1923, and work undertaken by the halibut commission since then.

Trumble, Robert J., John D. Neilson, W.R. Bowering, and Donald McCaughran. Atlantic Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) and Pacific Halibut (H. stenolepis) and Their North American Fisheries. Ottawa: National Research Council Canada, 1993, 84 pp., photographs, maps, illustrations, tables, graphs, references. A brief history of the fishery, plus information about the distribution, migration, and life history of Pacific halibut.

14 – Crab

Anderson, Jake. Relapse. Dublin, OH: Coventry House Publishing, 2014, 212 pp. A Deadliest Catch greenhorn who worked up to become a licensed captain.

Beale, Sybil. The King Crab Industry of Alaska, 1953‐1969: An Economic Analysis. Master’s thesis, University of Washington, 1971.

Campbell, Scott with Jim Ruland. Giving the Finger: Risking it All to Fish the World’s Deadliest Sea. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2014, 264 pp. A Deadliest Catch skipper’slook at the reality of being an Alaska fisherman, including the time he almost lost a finger.

Dillon, Patrick. Lost at Sea: An American Tragedy. New York: Dial Press, 1998, 264 pp. The loss of the twin Bering Sea crabbers Americus and Altair in 1983 claimed 14 lives and contributed to the fishery’s “deadliest catch” reputation. The sudden capsizing of the sister ships in relatively calm seas is believed due to their loss of stability from being overloaded with crab pots.

Hillstrand, Andy, and Jonathan Hillstrand with Malcolm MacPherson. Time Bandit:Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World’s Deadliest Jobs. New York: Ballantine Books, 2009, 240 pp.

Miller, Graham. The Development of the King Crab Industry in Alaska up to 1964, Master’s thesis, University of Alaska, 1965.

Stevens, Bradley G., editor. King Crabs of the World: Biology and Fisheries Management. Boca Raton FL: CRC Press; 2014, 636 pp. A compilation of articles on the biology and life history of king crabs and their management, edited by a former NMFS biologist, and including a chapter on the history of the king crab fishery in Alaska.

Walker, Spike. Working on the Edge, Surviving in the World’s Most Dangerous Profession: King Crab Fishing on Alaska’s High Seas. London, UK: St. Martin’s Press, 1993, 279 pp.

Walker, Spike. Nights of Ice: True Stories of Disaster and Survival on Alaska’s High Seas. London, UK: St. Martin’s, 1997, 206 pp. Eight true stories recount ordeals of fishermen who encounter shipwrecks and other perils in the oceans around Alaska.

Walker, Spike. Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska’s High Seas. London, UK: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002, 288 pp. The Coast Guard rescue of the five-man crew of the trawler La Conte during a vicious storm in the Gulf of Alaska in 1998. Walker also chronicled the 2004 grounding of the freighter Selendang Ayu in the Aleutians in On the Edge of Survival: A Shipwreck, a Raging Storm, and the Harrowing Alaskan Rescue that Became a Legend. London, UK: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011, 304 pp.

White, Chris. Wind, Waves, and a Suicidal Boat: Personal Stories from the Most Dangerous Job in the World. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2001, 96 pp., photographs, maps. Experiences fishing for king crab in the Bering Sea and for salmon in Bristol Bay.

15 – Seals and Whales

Note: See also Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries, under 5 – Canneries.

44th Congress. Seal Fisheries in Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1876, 277 pp. House of Representatives Ex. Doc. 83. Report on the status of Pribilof fur seal fisheries and including primary source material dating to 1870 and including the Alaska Commercial Company.

50th Congress. Investigation of the Fur-Seal and other Fisheries of Alaska. Washington: GPO, 1889. L, 415 pp. Report by the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

Birkeland, Knut. The Whalers of Akutan: An Account of Modern Whaling in the Aleutian Islands. New Haven, CT: Yale Press, 1926, 171 pp. photographs.

Bockstoce, John R. Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1986, 400 pp., photographs, illustrations, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Detailed history of commercial whaling off Alaska, with references to its occasional connection to its fisheries.

Busch, Briton Cooper. The War against the Seals: A History of the North American Seal Fishery. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1985, xvii, 374 pages, illustrations. The history of seal harvesting from the 1780s in the Atlantic, Pacific and Alaska waters.

Denfeld, Colt. The Akutan Whaling and Naval Fueling Station: A History. Anchorage: Alaska District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1996, 22 pp. Illustrated account of the Aleutian Island outpost.

Elliott, Henry Wood. “The Loot and Ruin of the Fur-Seal Herd of Alaska.” North American Review, Vol. 186, No. 617, June 21, 1907. New York: The North American Review Publishing Company, 1907, 11 pp.

Elliott, Henry Wood and Andrew F. Gallagher. Condition of the Fur-Seal Herd of Alaska and the Conduct of the Public Business on the Pribilof Islands. Washington: GPO, 1913, 139 pp. maps. Report of special agents of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce with concern over the decline in the fur-seal population and illegal harvest of yearlings. Updated census and maps of the rookeries, and report on condition of Aleut homes on St. Paul and St. George.

Various authors. Fur Seal Arbitration. Washington: GPO, 1892-1895, 15 volumes, maps, illustrations. Proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration, convened in Paris from 1892 to 1893, under a treaty between the United States and Great Britain to determine the jurisdictional rights of the United States in the waters of Bering Sea. The initial decision favored Canada but wasn’t the last word in the dispute over sealing in the Bering Sea.

Gay, James Thomas. American Fur Seal Diplomacy: The Alaskan Fur Seal Controversy. New York: Petra Lang, 1987, 180 pp. notes, index. History of the political, economic, and conservation interests over fur seals in the Bering Sea that became entwined in controversy and involved Great Britain, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Hansen, Craig A. “Seals and Sealing.” Islands of the Seals: The Pribilofs. Alaska Geographic, Vol. 9, No. 3. Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 1982, 128 pp., photographs, maps. History and management of the fur seal harvest by a NMFS management biologist. The issue also includes articles on the landscape, birds, flowers, and residents of the Pribilofs.

Howay, Fredric William, and Ethelbert Olaf Stuart Scholefield. “The Sealing Industry and the Fur Seal Arbitration.” British Columbia: From the Earliest Times to the Present, Vol. 2. Vancouver, BC: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1914, pp.459-466, photo. Chapter 27 is a history of the Canadian sealing in the Bering Sea including the Fur Seal Arbitration hearings in Paris 1892-1893.

Jordan, David Starr, et al. The Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific Ocean (in 5 volumes). Washington: GPO, 1898 and 1899, photographs, illustrations, maps, indices. Part I: The History, Condition, and Needs of the Herd of Fur Seals Resorting to the Pribilof Islands, 249 pp. Part II: Observations on the Fur Seals of the Pribilof Islands, 1872-1897, pp. 250-606. Part III: Special Papers Related to the Fur Seal and to the Natural History of the Pribilof Islands, xii, 629 pp. Part IV: The Asiatic Fur-Seal Islands and Fur-Seal Industry by Leonhard Stejneger. 384 pp. A fifth volume includes charts of the Pribilof seal rookeries. Extensive reports, overseen and partially written by Jordan, president of Stanford University, presaged the scientific approach to wildlife conservation that would proliferate in the 20th century.

MacLeish, Sumner. Seven Words for Wind: Essays and Field Notes from Alaska’s Pribilof Islands, Kenmore, WA, Epicenter Press, 1997, 159 pp. Reflections and stories of life on the Pribilof Islands, including its fur seals, during the 1980s.

Martin, Fredericka. The Hunting of the Silver Fleece: Epic of the Fur Seal. New York: Greenberg Publisher, 1946, xxiii, 328 pp., index, appendices. History of the Pribilof fur seal fishery.

Martin, Fredericka. Sea Bears: The Story of the Fur Seal. Philadelphia: Chilton Co., 1960, 201 pp. photographs, index. An updated and abbreviated history.

Finley, Carmel. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011, 208 pp., notes, index. History and critique of using “maximum sustainable yield” as a management goal in salmon and tuna fisheries, with references to Alaska and Bristol Bay.

Greenberg, Paul. Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. New York: Penguin Press, 2010, 261, notes, index. The history, management, and status of world fisheries for salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna. Alaska figures prominently in the chapter on salmon.

Greenberg, Paul. American Catch: The Fight for our Local Seafood. New York: Penguin Press, 2014, 320 pp. Greenberg tackles the paradox that while America imports over 90 percent of the seafood we eat, we also export many species we produce, such as Alaska salmon. Also looks at New York oysters and Gulf of Mexico shrimp. Includes references to the Pebble Mine issue in Bristol Bay.

Gregory, Homer E., and Kathleen Barnes. North Pacific Fisheries with Special Reference to Alaska Salmon. San Francisco: American Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations, 1939, xviii, appendices, index. A broad look at the economics of the Pacific fishing industry, with chapters on conservation, marketing, and labor. Focuses on growing international issues created by Japanese fishing activities in Bristol Bay in the 1930s.

Harrison, Gordon Scott. Politics of Resource Development in Alaska: Primary Processing in the Salmon Industry. Anchorage: University of Alaska Institute of Social, Economic and Government Research, 1970, 11 pp. Analysis of the benefits and costs of the state requirement for primary processing of seafood intended to protect existing processors.

Hawkins, James E., and Elizabeth A. Daugherty. The Silver Fleece: An Economic Study of the Bristol Bay Region. Juneau: Alaska Rural Development Board, 1958, 55 pp., photographs, map, tables, charts. Critical discussion of lack of fishing industry contributions to the local economy and need for alternatives to boost economic development.

Iudicello, Suzanne, Michael Weber, and Robert Wieland. Fish, Markets, and Fishermen: The Economics of Overfishing: Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999, xiv, 193 pp., tables, graphs, references, index. Economic analysis of factors that lead to overfishing and a focus on limited-entry programs in use in Alaska salmon, halibut, and sablefish fisheries, among others.

Knapp, Gunnar, Paul Peyton and Craig Weiss. The Japanese Salmon Market: An Introduction for Alaskans. Anchorage: Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development, 1993, 111 pp., appendices. A report written to increase understanding about the largest market for Alaska seafood, with information about Japan’s salmon supply, consumption, distribution, and pricing, with recommendations for the future.

Kresge, David T., et al. Bristol Bay, A Socioeconomic Study. Anchorage: Institute of Social, Economic and Government Research, University of Alaska, 1974, 152 pp., maps. A broad look at the region’s economy, population, labor force, land use, etc., but with a focus on the region’s dependence on fisheries.

Kruse, Gordon H. An Overview of Alaska’s Fisheries: Catch and Economic Importance of the Resources, Participants in the Fisheries, Revenues Generated, and Expenditures on Management. Juneau: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1988, xi, 72 pp., tables, citations. A broad overview of the catch and economic significance of Alaska fisheries, contrasted with other Pacific states.

Marchak, Patricia, and Neil Guppy and John McMullen, editors. Uncommon Property: The Fishing and Fish Processing Industries in British Columbia. Toronto: Methuen, 1987, xvi, 402 pp, tables, graphs, bibliography, index. While focusing on British Columbia fisheries, this includes several references to Alaska. Looks at the role of governments, international markets, labor, and the viability of fishing communities.

McDowell, Eric, James Calvin, and Neal Gilbertsen. Alaska Seafood Industry Study: An Economic Profile of the Seafood Industry in Alaska. Juneau: The McDowell Group, 1989, vii, 96 pp, tables, graphs, bibliography, appendix. Prepared for the Alaska Seafood Industry Study Commission, a detailed analysis of the economic impact of the Alaska Seafood Industry and its role in domestic and international markets.

Northern Economics, Inc. The Seafood Industry in Alaska’s Economy. Anchorage: Northern Economics, 2009, 77 pp., charts, references. Overview of the history of Alaska’s seafood industry, its place in domestic and international markets, and role in the state’s economy. Prepared for three trade associations: the Marine Conservation Alliance, At-Sea Processors Association, and Pacific Seafood Processors Association.

Orth, Frank, and W. Patrick Dougherty. Foreign Investment in the Alaska Seafood Industry. Kirkland, WA: Frank Orth & Associates, 1980, 380 pp., appendices, references. Prepared for the Alaska Legislature’s House Interim Committee on Foreign Investment, an examination of foreign investment in Alaska’s fishing industry and whether this fostered or hindered its development. Dougherty wrote a related article, “Mr. Tashiro Goes to Kodiak,” published in the Alaska Advocate, Juneau, on December 7, 1978.

17 – Resource Development Conflicts

Allee, Brian J., editor. North Aleutian Basin Energy-Fisheries. Anchorage: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Sea Grant, 2008, vi, 201 pp., index. Workshop proceedings on potential fishery impacts from oil and gas development in the North Aleutian Basin in the Bering Sea, off Bristol Bay. The basin was offered for exploration in the late 1980s, but leases were bought back following the Exxon Valdez disaster. Concerns were renewed when the basin was again considered for leasing, but the basin was subsequently withdrawn.

Ott, Riki. Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008, 327 pp. A commercial fisherman and PhD marine biologist, Ott describes firsthand the impact of the 1989 spill on Prince William Sound and the community of Cordova. Ott also wrote Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Cordova, AK: Dragonfly Sisters Press, 2005, 562 pp.

Pebble Partnership. The Pebble Environment: A Scientific Overview of Environmental and Social Data in Southwest Alaska. Anchorage: Pebble Partnership, 2012, 50 pp., photographs, graphs, maps. A company-prepared summary of the over 20,000 pages of scientific information in its Environmental Baseline Data (EBD) for the proposed copper and gold mine in Bristol Bay. Includes list of contributors. The complete document is available at http://pebbleresearch.com/download/ and at ARLIS.

Piper, Ernest. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: Final Report, State of Alaska Response. Anchorage: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, 1993, viii, 184 pp., photographs, maps, tables, graphs, notes. Summary of the state’s response to the 1989 spill and its aftermath, including a section on commercial and subsistence fisheries.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska, 2014. Seattle, WA: EPA Region 10. An assessment to determine the significance of Bristol Bay’s ecological resources and evaluate the potential impacts of large-scale mining on these resources. Available via web at www.epa.gov/bristolbay.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A Report on the Fish and Wildlife Resources Affected by Rampart Canyon Dam and Reservoir Project. Juneau: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1964, 140 pp., plates, maps, appendices. Official report on the anticipated impacts of the proposed Rampart hydroelectric project on fish and wildlife resources.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. North Slope Oil Development, The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and Marine Terminal Sites: A Reconnaissance Report on the Impact on Fish and Wildlife Resources. Juneau: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1970, ii, 57 pp., plates, maps, appendices. Descriptions of fish and wildlife resources, habitats, anticipated problems, and summary of anticipated impacts of construction and operation of the oil pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.

Cullenberg, Paula, editor. Alaska’s Fishing Communities: Harvesting the Future. Anchorage: Alaska Sea Grant, 2007, 114 pp. Proceedings from a 2006 conference that focused on how fishermen, community residents, and local governments can work to ensure a vibrant fishing economy. Much discussion centered on limited-access issues.

Graham, Michael. The Fish Gate. London: Faber and Faber, 1943, 196 pp, plates, illustrations. With European fisheries shut down during WWII, a British fishery economist considered chronic problems facing the industry and concluded with his Great Law of Fishing: “Fisheries that are unlimited become unprofitable.”

Hannesson, Rognvaldur. The Privatization of the Oceans. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004, vii, 202, bibliography, index. Broad-based analysis of catch-share programs worldwide, including a chapter on experiences in the U.S., including Alaska.

Mundt, J. Carl, editor. Limited Entry into the Commercial Fisheries, Seattle, WA: Institute for Marine Studies, University of Washington, 1974, 143 pp., appendices. Proceedings of a conference at UW’s Institute for Marine Studies, September 12 and 13, 1974, including presentations and transcripts of discussions that included representatives of government and industry, economists, biologists, and legal scholars. Includes discussion of alternatives and statutes from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Canada.

National Research Council Ocean Studies Board. Sharing the Fish: Toward a National Policy on Individual Fishing Quotas. Washington: National Academy Press, 1999, xiv, 422 pp., tables, appendices, bibliography, index. Review of performance of various catch-share programs worldwide, including Alaska halibut and sablefish, provisions allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, alternative measures, and recommendations.

Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. London: Cambridge University Press, 1990. The 2009 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Ostrom argues that resource users can use alternate cooperative methods to avoid overexploiting resources and dissipating wealth through competition.

Pautzke, Clarence, and Chris Oliver. Development of the Individual Fishing Quota Program for Sablefish and Halibut Longline Fisheries off Alaska. Anchorage: NPFMC, 1997. A background presentation to the National Research Council’s Committee to Review Individual Fishing Quotas.

Barker, James H. Always Getting Ready, Upterrlainarluta: Yup’ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1993, photographs. Barker follows the Yup’ik Eskimo of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta through a year’s cycle, beginning with spring seal hunting and ending with a winter celebration of life. Photographs and text capture a people “always getting ready,” constantly alert to opportunities to meet their year-round subsistence needs.

Drummond, Don E. A Naknek Chronicle: Ten Thousand Years in a Land of Lakes and Rivers and Mountains of Fire. King Salmon, AK: Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2005, 112 pp. Subsistence uses in the Katmai National Park and adjacent areas.

Gilbert, Charles H., and Henry O’Malley. “Investigations of the Salmon Fisheries of the Yukon River.” Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920. Washington: GPO, 1921, pp. 128-154. Alaska’s first subsistence conflict. Concerns were raised about the impact on subsistence users by a floating cannery that operated near the mouth of the Yukon River. Gilbert and O’Malley recommended closing the cannery, and it later was. Includes discussion of the stock composition and status of Yukon River salmon fisheries.

Mattson, Chester R. Chum Salmon Resources of Alaska from Bristol Bay to Point Hope. Washington: United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 1962, 22 pp., maps, tables, bibliography. Special Scientific Report – Fisheries 425, an overview of the chum salmon of western Alaska, with an emphasis on subsistence uses in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region.

Norris, Frank. Alaska Subsistence: A National Park Service Management History. Anchorage: National Park Service, 2002, 328 pp., photographs, maps, appendices, index, bibliography. A history of subsistence uses, the development of federal management policies before and after passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the controversies, politics, and court rulings that followed.

Price, Robert E. The Great Father in Alaska: The Case of the Tlingit and Haida Salmon Fishery. Douglas, AK: First Street Press, 1990, 203 pp. Study of development of commercial salmon fisheries in Southeast Alaska, and involvement of indigenous residents and impacts on their subsistence needs.

Smelcer, John E., and Morgen A. Young, editors. We are the Land, We are the Sea: Stories of Subsistence from the people of Chenega, Alaska. Anchorage: Chenega Heritage, 2007, 176 pp., photographs. An anthology of 30 stories of subsistence users in the Prince William Sound community.

VanStone, James W. Eskimos of the Nushagak River: An Ethnographic History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967, xxiv, 192, bibliography, maps, index. A history of the Nushagak region including subsistence and commercial uses of salmon. A curator of archaeology and ethnology at Chicago’s Field Museum, VanStone also wrote several issues of Fieldiana Anthropology detailing his work on the Nushagak in the early 1970s.

20 – Recreational Fisheries

Bennett, Bo. Rods and Wings: A History of the Fishing Lodge Business in Bristol Bay. Alaska. Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000, 384 pp. photographs. A history of Bristol Bay’s sportfishing industry, aviation, and politics that focuses on fishing lodges and the people who developed them, lodge construction, and fishing for rainbow trout, grayling, salmon, etc.

Cremata, Andrew. Fish This! An Alaskan Story. Skagway, AK: Lynn Canal Publishing, 2013. A Skagway writer collected his “Fish This!” stories into one volume, including stories about fishing, life in a small Alaska town, and the streams nearby where one can escape to enjoy time in the outdoors.

Niedieck, Paul. Cruises in the Bering Sea Being Records of Further Sport and Travel. London: Rowland Ward, 1909, xv, 252 pp., ads. Accounts of big-game hunting and fishing, with historical notes on the mining and fisheries of Alaska, based on a trip in 1906 from Japan to Seattle, via Kamchatka, the Gulf of Anadyr, Nome, Unalaska, the Kenai Peninsula, and the Inside Passage.

Piper, Ernest. Alaska Sportfishing. Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 1997, 160 pp., Full-color guide to the sport: the basics, the species and fishing by region in the state.

Ureneck, Lou. Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-Fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska. London, UK: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009, 304 pp. The story of a divorced outdoorsman, father, and professor who finds rewards on a fly-fishing trip with his son to Alaska, with commentary on the healing aspects of nature.

21 – Memoirs and Biographies

Bender, Bert. Catching the Ebb: Drift-Fishing for Life in Cook Inlet. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2008. Recounting thirty summers of fishing Alaska’s Cook Inlet, Bender describes his careers as a commercial gillnetter and a professor of American literature. His narrative celebrates the fishing life as he knew it and explores issues of sustainability in the commercial salmon fishery.

Branson, John B. The Life and Times of John W. Clark of Nushagak, Alaska, 1846-1896. Anchorage, U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2012, xiii, 223 pp., photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index. Biography of Nushagak trader John W. Clark and his involvement in the development of the canned salmon industry in Bristol Bay.

Burgner, Robert L. My Career with the Fisheries Research Institute. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, 2009, 90 pp., references. “Bud” Burgner, the first employee of UW’s Fisheries Research Institute, recalls his six decades of research in Bristol Bay and other Alaska fisheries.

Clark, Joe, with Joe Faith. Nukalpiaq: A Good Hunter and Provider. Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, 2005, 239 pp., photographs, map, notes, appendices. Memoirs of subsistence and commercial fishing in Bristol Bay during the sailboat days, work as a cannery winter watchman, and more, by the Alaska Federation of Natives’ 2004 Elder of the Year.

Deschner, Whit. How to be a Jerk in Bristol Bay: An (ab)User’s Guide. Baker, OR: Eddie Tern Press, 1991, 72 pp., photographs. A long-time crewman and author (see also his Burning the Iceberg in fiction) lampoons practices in the competitive Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

Dodds, Gordon B. The Salmon King of Oregon: R. D. Hume and the Pacific Fisheries. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1959, 238 pp, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. Biography of Robert Deniston Hume (1845-1908), a pioneer Rogue River salmon canner who came to Alaska, battled with the Alaska Packers Association over control of the canned salmon market.

Dunn, J. Richard. “William Francis Thompson (1888-1965): A Preeminent Fishery Biologist of the Early and Mid Twentieth Century.” Marine Fisheries Review, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2001), pp. 1-4, photographs. Seattle, WA: National Marine Fisheries Service. Thompson’s pioneering work greatly influenced our understanding and the management of Pacific salmon and halibut, as well as the direction of the University of Washington’s School of Fisheries.

Dunn, J. Richard. “John Nathan Cobb (1868–1930): Founding Director of the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle.” Marine Fisheries Review, Vol. 65, No. 3 (2003), pp. 1-24, photographs. Seattle, WA: National Marine Fisheries Service. Cobb led a varied career including the Bureau of Fisheries, private sector, journalism, and was the first director of UW’s School of Fisheries. He wrote several early histories of the industry and other volumes referenced here.

Durr, Bob. Down in Bristol Bay: High Tides, Hangovers, and Harrowing Experiences on Alaska’s Last Frontier. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999, 219 pp., photographs. A sixties dropout from academia on the east coast becomes a fisherman in the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery.

Duvall, Ivo W. Salmon Industry Alaska. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2014. Remembrances of a Petersburg resident on the history of salmon fishing in Alaska, including background on harvest methods, canning, vessels used, etc.

Engstrom, Allan. Life on the Nushagak. Juneau: Elton Engstrom, 2005, 104 pp., photographs. Remembrances of growing up and working at the family’s Engstrom Brothers freezer plant in Dillingham from 1977 to 1981.

Fields, Lesley Leyland, editor. Out on the Deep Blue: Women, Men and the Oceans They Fish. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2001, xii, 352. A collection of essays on fishing by various authors, many focusing on Alaska.

Forrer, Eric. From the Nets of a Salmon Fisherman: A Young Man’s Adventure in Survival and Discovery in the Yukon Territory. New York: Doubleday & Doubleday, 1973, 158 pp., illustrations.

George, Marilyn Jordan. Following the Alaskan Dream: My Salmon Trolling Adventures in the Last Frontier. Petersburg, AK: Little Norway Press, 1999. R. N. DeArmond described it as, “A gripping account of those years of fishing for salmon and halibut, of disasters at sea, and of raising a family under circumstances peculiar to Southeastern Alaska.”

Hammond, Jay. Tales of Alaska’s Bushrat Governor: The Extraordinary Autobiography of Jay Hammond, Wilderness Guide and Reluctant Politician. Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 1996, 340 pp. photographs. Better known as the father of the Permanent Fund, Hammond was a bush pilot and Bristol Bay setnetter at heart

Hume, Robert D. A Pygmy Monopolist: The Life and Doings of R. D. Hume Written by Himself. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1961, vi, 83 pp., preface, map, notes. The feisty pioneer canneryman’s autobiography, edited by Gordon Dodd.

Jensen, Erv. Little Boats and Big Salmon. Silverdale, WA: Three Trees Pub., 1999, 208 pp. Erv and his brother, Sven, started commercial fishing from little boats for big salmon in southeast Alaska nearly a half century ago and were among the pioneers of techniques for catching chinook salmon, such as mooching.

Jordan, David Starr. The Days of a Man: Being Memories of a Naturalist, Teacher, and Minor Prophet of Democracy. New York: World Book Company, 1922: Book 1, xxviii, 710 pp., illustrations, and Book 2, xxviii, 906 pp., illustrations, index. The nation’s leading fishery scientist at the turn of the 20th century and first president of Stanford University, Jordan was involved in many early investigations of Alaska fisheries, which he recalls among other memories in his two-volume, 1,600-page autobiography.

King, Robert W. “Crescent Porter Hale, Revisited.” Proceedings of the Alaska Historical Society conference in Juneau, 2006. Anchorage, Alaska Historical Society, pp. 55-65, photographs. Hale helped build the second cannery in Bristol Bay in 1886 and returned for 50 years until his death, during which he had a role in nine different canneries and became known as the “best all-around, competent canneryman in Western Alaska.”

Lord, Nancy. Fishcamp: Life on an Alaskan Shore. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997, 261 pp. Author writes of her life from June to August, days filled with setnet fishing near Cook Inlet and with the nature and cultures that surround their site.

Matsen, Brad. Fishing Up North: Stories of Luck and Loss in Alaskan Waters. Seattle, WA: Alaska Northwest Books, 1998, 223 pp. A former editor of the Alaska Fishermen’s Journal, Matsen’s work was based on over 20 years on the Alaska fishing grounds.

McKeown, Martha Ferguson. The Trail Led North. New York: Macmillan, 1948, 222 pp. Remembrances of the author’s uncle Mont Hawthorne of Astoria, OR, who worked at canneries in Kodiak, Karluk, and Chignik in the 1890s, and took part in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. McKeown also wrote a sequel: Alaska Silver: Another Mont Hawthorne Story. New York: Macmillian, 1951, viii, 274 pp., which recounts his work at canneries in Cook Inlet and Southeast Alaska through 1906, and a prequel: Them Was the Days: An American Saga of the ‘70s. New York: Macmillan, 1950, 282 pp., about Hawthorne growing up in Virginia, homesteading in Nebraska, and his travels to the Dakotas and Wyoming in the 1870s.

Nelson, Donald. Little Norway: the Story of Petersburg. Petersburg, AK: Pilot Publishing, 2001, 199 pp., photographs, references. Part memoir of Nelson, who was born in Petersburg in 1931 and worked in the fisheries, and part history of the fishing community and its residents.

Nicholson, John W. No Half Truths: Reminiscences of Life in Bristol Bay, Alaska, 1906-1995. Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 1995, 155 pp., index. Nicholson fished in Bristol Bay for over 60 seasons, many in the sailboat days before 1951.

Nicholson, William H. Sunken Gillnets: Fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 1996, 172 pp., photographs, index. The son of John W., “Doc” Nicholson chronicles his experiences fishing in Bristol Bay with a focus on his involvement in development of the Togiak gillnet herring fishery in the 1980s.

Noden, Walter. Alaska Salmon and Sail. New York: Vantage Press, 2000, 130 pp. The son of a Yup’ik mother and a Scotch-Irish father, the author recalls his life as a commercial fisherman, bush pilot, and gold prospector in southwest Alaska.

Tillion, Diana. Guardians of the Great North Pacific Casino. New York: Vantage Press, 1999, 207 pp. Cast as a novel, Tillion recalls individuals involved in the “Americanization” of the marine fisheries off Alaska following passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 1976. Included is her husband, “Fish Czar” Clem Tillion, and many others, all named.

Williams, Wilma. This is Coffee Point, Go Ahead: A Mother’s Story of Fishing Survival at Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Anchorage: Alaska Press, 1996, 110 pp. Personal account of growing up in Alaska and running a family set net site at Egegik.

Williams, Wilma, and Rhonda Shelford Jansen, illustrator. Alaska Sea Escapes. Homer, AK: Wizard Works, 1998, 126 pp. A collection of stories of the adventures of men and women who spend their lives going down to the sea in ships.

22 – Fiction

Beach, Rex. The Silver Horde. New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1909, illustrations. A luckless gold miner stumbles on the richness of Bristol Bay salmon, builds a cannery and despite being thwarted by bankers, unions, and others, is saved by a woman of ill repute and the fish trap. Twice made into a film.

Calvin, Jack. Square Rigged. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1929, ix, 334 pp. illustrations. A novel for teens about a cannery owner’s son who learns the fishing business by shipping aboard a sailing bark headed to Bristol Bay. The story continues in Fisherman 28, 1930, ix, 225 pp, illustrations, where the protagonist works on a sailboat gillnetter. Calvin, of Sitka, is best known as coauthor with biologist Ed Ricketts (“Doc” of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row fame) of the first edition of Between Pacific Tides, a classic textbook on intertidal ecology first published in 1939 and remains in print today. Both novels are illustrated by Mahlon Blaine, better known for his fantasy erotica.

McCloskey, William B. Highliners: A Documentary Novel about the Fishermen of Alaska.New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979, 387 pp. Based on the history of Alaska fisheries, a novel about those who make their living in Alaska’s fishing industry – the skippers, their crews, their families. “Highliners” are the elite of the fishing world, the skippers who make the biggest catches. McCloskey continued the story in Breakers: Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2000; Raiders, Lyons Press, 2004; and a prequel, Warriors: New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2013, xxiii, 360 pp.

Roscoe, William F. Icebound. New York: Vantage Press, 1954, 132 pp., photographs. A self-published, “grim and gripping” novel about the author’s participation in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery in 1918, when many cannery ships were trapped in the ice.

Willoughby, Barrett. Spawn of the North. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932, 349 pp. Hailed as Alaska’s “first real novelist,” Willoughby’s works of romantic fiction were popular in the 1920s and 30s. Spawn of the North is set among the fish traps of Southeast Alaska. Released as a film in 1938 starring Henry Fonda, George Raft, and Dorothy Lamour.

23 – Trade Recipes

Artwork from the 1915 edition of the Alaska Packers Association’s recipe book, How To Eat Canned Salmon.

Alaska Packers Association. Canned Salmon Recipes, St. Louis World’s Fair Edition. San Francisco: Mutual Label & Lithographic Co., 1904, illustrations. An early effort by the canned salmon industry to appeal to consumers, this includes basic recipes like salmon croquettes, salmon loaf, salmon pie, and even cold salmon: “delicious just as it is taken from the can.” Also recipes for military use of canned salmon (hard tack required) and salmon cutlets (“shape like cutlets”). Begins with instructions on how to open a can and has recipes for making mayonnaise and hollandaise sauces. Illustrations include artwork depicting the Spanish American War-era Great White Fleet. APA issued many reprints in succeeding years under the title How to Eat Canned Salmon and featuring their various brands of canned salmon, which were marketed regionally.

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Taste the Pride of Alaska: Canned Salmon. Juneau: State of Alaska, c. 1980s, 14 pp., illustrations. ASMI was formed in 1981 to respond to marketing problems affecting canned salmon. Among its initial efforts was to promote canned salmon with refreshed recipes for basics like fritters, omelets, and salmon melts, and also salmon-zucchini quiche squares, salmon spinach turnovers, salmon manicotti, and more.

Associated Salmon Packers. Thousand Dollar Prize-Winning Recipes. Seattle: Associated Salmon Packers, 1927, reprinted, 31 pp., illustrations. Mrs. Wm. M. Jones of Covington, Kentucky took the $500 top prize for her recipe for salmon patties; Mrs. Minnie Childs of Tustin, California was second for her salmon omelet. Includes recipes from celebrity chefs in Seattle and San Francisco, and salmon serving suggestions for children, picnic spreads, and more. Includes as well Department of Commerce Circular No. 48. Washington: GPO, 1926, with recipes for canned pink and chum salmon.

Association of Pacific Fisheries. Canned Salmon: Alaska’s Greatest Resource, Facts about its Production and Recipes for its Use. Seattle: Association of Pacific Fisheries, 1935, 16 pp. photographs. A souvenir of the Ketchikan Industrial Fair, Aug. 30 through Sept. 3, 1935. After the state of Washington banned traps from its waters, the canners issued this recipe booklet for Ketchikan residents that linked the local economy to traps. Noting the trap logs and wire netting produced in Ketchikan, they concluded: “the welfare of this community is so inseparably connected with that of the canned salmon industry that any movement which has for its objective the imposition of confiscatory taxes, or the dictation of uneconomic methods, must eventually endanger the wellbeing of the community itself, and inflict hardship on every resident, including the very class whom it is designed to benefit.” Also recipes for salmon loaf, bisque, and soufflé.

Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Outdoor Fish Cookery. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior, Circular 189, c. 1960s, 9 pp. Thoughts on seafood preparation as America moved to the suburbs, including recipes for barbecued Italian-style halibut and lemon-butter salmon steaks. With advice on how to generate smoky flavor and how to start the barbecue: “NEVER USE GASOLINE!” (emphasis not added).

Martin, Mary Hale. How to Serve, How to Buy Canned Salmon. Chicago: Libby, McNeill, and Libby, c. 1930s, 23 pp., photographs, illustrations. Martin, a home economist for Libby, offers 16 recipes, including jellied salmon loaf and salmon mock omelet. Plus a guide for salmon shoppers, discussion of salmon varieties and a “day with the fishing fleet,” an introduction to the fishing industry.

National Canners Association. Canned Salmon: Its Preparation, Value and Uses, Washington, DC: National Canners Association, 1929, 16 pp., photographs. Includes description of various species of salmon, the canning process, and numerous recipes for basics like salmon sandwiches and bisque, plus onions stuffed with salmon a la Mexicana, Egyptian Delight Salad, and more.

National Marine Fisheries Service. Fish and Shellfish over the Coals. Washington: GPO, U.S. Department of Commerce, Test Kitchen Series No. 14, 1975, 24 pp., photographs. Barbecue recipes including halibut steaks, grilled king crab legs, and salmon burgers from the newly formed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

North Pacific Bank Note Co. Presenting a Story of Peter Pan. Seattle: Good Housekeeping Bureau, 1939, illustrations. Verse depicting J.M. Barrie’s playful “boy who never grew up” learning about the salmon canning industry and fish traps, with many recipes. Prepared for the Alaska Pacific Salmon Co., Peter Pan was used as a brand name beginning in 1914 and remains the name of one of Alaska’s major seafood processors.

Spencer, Evelene, and John N. Cobb. Fish Cookery. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1921, x, 348 pp. index. A home economist for the Bureau of Fisheries, Spencer became known as the nation’s “fish evangelist.” She and the head of the UW College of Fisheries offer general cooking advice and over 600 recipes for the preparation of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic animals such as turtles, frogs, porpoise, and whale meat. Dedicated to the “women of the United States who, during the world war, assisted so willingly in the ‘eat more fish’ campaign.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Take a Can of Salmon. Washington: GPO, Circular No. 60, c. 1960s, 17 pp., photographs. Salmon mousse, cassoulet, and tetrazzini. Produced with support from the Seattle-based Canned Salmon Institute, which produced an accompanying teacher’s guide, Basic and Creative Cooking with a Can of Salmon, c. 1960s, 19 pp., photographs, and two short films all offered free of charge for home economics teachers. An accompanying four-page insert by the institute, Salmon Party Sandwiches,is dated 1967.

Wakefield’s. Recipes for Serving Wakefield’s Fresh Frozen Alaska King Crab Meat. Seattle: Wakefield’s, c. 1958, 18 pp., illustrations. Published by the king crab pioneer, this booklet includes king crab bisque, crab Newburg, and crab “Snug Harbor, an excellent bridge-club luncheon.” The text brags of Wakefield’s “fleet of trawlers, with enormous nets to drag the sea bottom” for crabs. Those nets were later banned in favor of crab pots.

Matsen, Bradford, and Pat O’Hara, photographer. Stock Image Northwest Coast: Essays and Images from the Columbia River to the Cook Inlet. San Diego: Thunder Bay Press, 1991, 188 pp 135 color photographs of the Northwest Coast of North America, from the Columbia River to Alaska’s Cook Inlet, its glaciers, rain forest, brown bears, and salmon.

Suchy, Jana M. Fishing for a Living in Southeast Alaska. San Francisco: Blurb, 2013, 232 pp., photographs. A photographer/writer’s memoir of fishing for salmon, halibut, shrimp, and more in Southeast Alaska in the 1980s. Includes essays published in trade magazines during the era. Available as a large format publication or in three small format volumes.

Troll, Tim. Sailing for Salmon: The Early Years of Commercial Fishing in Alaska’s Bristol Bay 1884-1951. Dillingham, AK: Nushagak-Mulchatna/Wood Tikchik Land Trust, 2011, 60 pp., photographs. A nostalgic look, through photographs and recollections, at Bristol Bay before 1951, when salmon were exclusively harvested from sailboats.

Roppel, Patricia. Salmon from Kodiak: A History of the Salmon Fishery on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Anchorage: Alaska Historical Commission, 1986, xi, 355 pp., photographs, maps, charts, notes, index. A detailed history of the island’s salmon fisheries and its many canneries.

Roppel, Patricia. “The Lost Art of Mild-Curing Salmon.” Alaska Journal 1986 Collection: History and Arts of the North, Vol. 16. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing Company, Terrance Cole, editor, 1986. History of the practice of mild-curing salmon, mostly chinook, by using a lightly salted brine, a process popular in Southeast Alaska in the early 20th century.

Roppel, Patricia. “Cannery Point: The Story of Hoonah Packing Company.” Juneau: Alaskan Southeastern Magazine (October 2001). History of the Hoonah cannery from its construction in 1912 to its planned conversion into a tourist destination.

Roppel, Patricia. “In Search of Point Ward Cannery.” Juneau: Alaskan Southeastern Magazine (January 2003). With few clues and no historic photographs, Roppel explores Ernest Sound for the site of a salmon cannery that operated in the early 1900s.

Roppel, Pat. Articles published in Juneau’s Capital City Weekly, 2010-2014,many under the general heading Southeast History. These were short articles, often just a single page, some with historic photographs, and are available at www.capitalcityweekly.com:

“Sounding Leads: Early Depth Sounders.” Design and use of lead weights to measure water depth and sample the bottom. March 17, 2010

“Early Methods for Fish Finding.” Looking for herring in the days before sonar and electronic fish finders. May 5, 2010

“’Chums Should Not Be Canned at All.’” In 1903, the nation’s top fish scientist considered chums and pinks to be “imitation salmon.” May 19, 2010

“‘Menace to the Salmon: History of Commercial Dolly Varden fishing in Southeast Alaska.” Considered a predator to some and game fish to others, Dolly Varden were fished commercially in Southeast beginning in 1906. June 30, 2010

“Fish Pirates of Icy and Chatham Straits.” Robbing fish traps to the north and west of Juneau in 1920. July 14, 2010

“Rare Prowfish Identified in Petersburg in the 1950s.” An unusual species is landed in Chatham Strait in 1954. July 28, 2010

“Necessities of Life for Chinese Cannery Workers in 1890.” Food and opium used by cannery workers. September 22, 2010. Also see related article on December 8, 2010.

“Early Days of Black Cod Fishing.” Beginning in 1913. September 14, 2011

“Bootlegger Blames Floating Fish Trap for Lost Booze.” A 1920 lawsuit filed by a man who claimed his boat sank in Dixon Entrance after running into an unmarked fish trap. The trap owner claimed otherwise. November 30, 2011

“The Demise of the Baranovich Saltery.” At Kasaan Bay on Prince of Wales Island in 1900. Conclusion of a 4-part series on life and times of pioneer miner, salmon salter, and bootlegger Charles Vincent Baranovich, d. 1879. May 9, 2012

“Salmon Cans for Early Canneries.” The art of making tin cans by hand. June 20, 2012

“What didn’t happen at Port Bazan.” Denial of a permit a defense contractor sought to test a noisy jet engine in a remote inlet on Dall Island. July 4, 2012.

“Stikine River Cannery – from 1888-89.” Near Wrangell. July 11, 2012

“Early Cannery at Gerard Point.” James Barron’s Thlinket Packing Company cannery across from Wrangell. September 19, 2012

“The Salmon of Sarkar Cove.” On the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. November 14, 2012

“Saltery and Cannery at Sarkar Cove.” November 21, 2012

“Just a Little More Detail.” A column of miscellany including a story about a trophy king salmon landed on Prince of Wales Island in 1939. November 28, 2012

“Baranof Island’s Redfish Bay Cannery”. The Baranof Packing Company, 1891-1899, on what is now Tumakof Creek. December 26, 2012

“Give Me Meat, Not Beans and Bacon.” Pioneers’ preference for canned meats by the Chicago packer, and later salmon canner, Libby, McNeill, and Libby. January 20, 2013

“Exploring the Burnett Island Cannery Site.” On Etolin Island, west of Wrangell. February 13, 2013

“Salting Salmon at Boca de Quadra.” Near Kah Shakes, south of Ketchikan. February 27, 2013

“Kell Bay’s Isolated Salmon Cannery.” On Kuiu Island, 1899-1901, one of the canneries where Mont Hawthorne worked and related in the books of Martha McKeown (see “Biographies and Memoires”). July 23, 2014

“Bombs, Bolsheviks and Salmon at Port Althorp.” The Deep Sea Salmon Company on the northern end of Chichagof Island, part 1 of 2. September 17, 2014

“The Fire that Destroyed One of Southeast’s Largest Canneries.” Concluding the previous article with the story of the loss of the Port Althorp cannery in 1940. September 24, 2014